Sunday, July 01, 2018

Monday Watch

Today's Headlines
Bloomberg:
  • Asian Stocks Face Mixed Start to Week; Oil Drops. Stocks in Asia looked set to kick off the second half of 2018 in a mixed fashion, while oil declined and the euro came under pressure over German political concerns. Investors will be focused again on Chinese assets after the biggest weekly drop in the yuan since the 2015 devaluation stoked concerns about the currency’s use as a tool in the trade spat. Equity futures in Japan were little changed ahead of the quarterly Tankan survey of business confidence. Australian futures rose. Hong Kong is closed for a holiday. Oil slid below $74 a barrel in New York after U.S. President Donald Trump called for higher production. Crude surged more than 8 percent last week. Futures on the S&P 500 rose less than 0.1 percent as of 7:05 a.m. in Tokyo. The gauge closed up 0.1 percent on Friday. Futures on Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average were little changed. Futures on Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index added 0.4 percent.
MarketWatch.com:
Zero Hedge:     
Night Trading
  • Asian indices are -.25% to +.245% on average.
  • Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 94.0 -1.5 basis points.
  • Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 15.0 +.25 basis point.
  • Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 69.51 +.04%.
  • FTSE 100 futures -.55%
  • S&P 500 futures -.04%.
  • NASDAQ 100 futures -.03%.

Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate
Before the Open:
  • None of note
After the Close:
  • (MLHR)/.58 
Economic Releases
10:00 am EST
  • Construction Spending MoM for May is estimated to rise +.5% versus a +1.8% gain in April.
  • ISM Manufacturing for June is estimated to fall to 58.2 versus 58.7 in May.
  • ISM Prices Paid for June is estimated to fall to 74.3 versus 79.5 in May..
Upcoming Splits
  • None of note
Other Potential Market Movers
  • The China Manufacturing PMI report, Eurozone PMI report and the Eurozone PPI report could also impact trading today.
BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly lower, weighed down by financial and technology shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open modestly higher and to weaken into the afternoon, finishing mixed.  The Portfolio is 50% net long heading into the week.

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