Day Traders Diary

5/12/15

U.S. equity futures trade near their pre-market lows amid cautious action overseas. The S&P 500 futures trade 17 points below fair value after notching their lows at the start of the European session. The retreat in futures has occurred amid continued weakness in Treasuries with the 10-yr yield higher by six basis points at 2.33%.

Today's economic data will be limited to the 10:00 ET release of the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey for March and the 14:00 ET release of the April Treasury Budget (Briefing.com consensus $155.00 billion).

In U.S. corporate news of note:

AOL (AOL 50.35, +7.76): +18.2% after agreeing to be acquired by Verizon (VZ 49.40, -0.40) for $50/share.

Gap (GPS 38.50, -1.37): -3.4% in reaction to a 12.0% decline in April same store sales.

Pall (PLL 120.17, +20.86): +21.0% after the Wall Street Journal reported Danaher (DHR 83.56, 0.00) and Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO 129.87, -0.11) may be interested in PLL.

Rackspace Hosting (RAX 45.75, -7.38): -13.9% despite reporting a one-cent beat. The stock received a pair of downgrades following earnings.

Reviewing overnight developments:

Asian markets ended mixed. Hong Kong's Hang Seng -1.1%, China's Shanghai Composite +1.6%, and Japan's Nikkei settled flat. 

In economic data: 

Japan's March Leading Index 105.5 (expected 105.5; prior 104.8); Coincident Indicator -1.2% (prior -2.8%)

Australia's March Home Loans +1.6% month-over-month (expected +1.0%; prior +1.1%); March Invest Housing Finance +6.4% month-over-month (prior -3.4%)

New Zealand's REINZ House Price Index +0.5% month-over-month (prior +6.7%)

In news: 

The dollar/yen pair spent the night in a 50-pip range with the yen currently trading higher by 0.1% against the greenback at 120.00.

Major European indices trade lower across the board. France's CAC -1.4%, UK's FTSE -1.6%, and Germany's DAX -2.0%. Elsewhere, Italy's MIB -0.5% and Spain's IBEX -1.5%.

Economic data was limited: 

UK's March Industrial Production +0.5% month-over-month (expected 0.1%; prior 0.1%); +0.7% year-over-year (consensus 0.2%; previous 0.1%). March Manufacturing Production +0.4% month-over-month (consensus 0.3%; last 0.5%); +1.1% year-over-year (expected 1.0%; prior 1.2%)

Among news of note: 

According to Kathimerini, Greece has made its EUR750 million payment to the International Monetary Fund by using reserves held at the Fund, which must be replenished within a month.