Broad Market Tone:
- Advance/Decline Line: Lower
- Sector Performance: Most Sectors Declining
- Market Leading Stocks: Performing In Line
Equity Investor Angst:
- ISE Sentiment Index 80.0 +15.94%
- Total Put/Call 1.05 -3.67%
Credit Investor Angst:
- North American Investment Grade CDS Index 87.29 -.79%
- European Financial Sector CDS Index 175.44 -2.02%
- Western Europe Sovereign Debt CDS Index 102.72 -.46%
- Emerging Market CDS Index 252.83 -2.19%
- 2-Year Swap Spread 15.0 -.25 bp
- 3-Month EUR/USD Cross-Currency Basis Swap -17.50 +.75 bp
Economic Gauges:
- 3-Month T-Bill Yield .06% unch.
- China Import Iron Ore Spot $135.90/Metric Tonne unch.
- Citi US Economic Surprise Index 4.0 -1.4 points
- 10-Year TIPS Spread 2.47 -2 bps
Overseas Futures:
- Nikkei Futures: Indicating +313 open in Japan
- DAX Futures: Indicating +7 open in Germany
Portfolio:
- Slightly Lower: On losses in my tech/medical sector longs
- Disclosed Trades: None
- Market Exposure: 50% Net Long
Bloomberg:
- Euro-Area Retail Sales Decline, Led by Weakness in France. Euro-area
retail sales fell in February as a decline in France offset gains in
Germany and Spain. Sales in the 17-nation currency bloc decreased 0.3
percent from January, when they rose a revised 0.9 percent, the
European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg said today. Economists
had forecast a decline of 0.4 percent, according to the median of 20
estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. From a year earlier, February sales fell 1.4 percent. Retail sales in France, the second-biggest euro-area
economy, dropped 2.2 percent in February from the prior month
after a 0.2 percent gain in January, today’s report showed.
Sales in Finland declined 0.8 percent after a 0.3 percent gain
in the previous month.
- European Stocks Post Biggest Weekly Decline in 2013. European stocks posted their biggest weekly decline since November as reports signaled that the economic rebound in the U.S. has slowed, while the European
Central Bank said risks remain to the euro area’s recovery. Vodafone Group Plc lost 2.1 percent after Verizon
Communications Inc. denied that it has considered buying the
mobile-phone operator. Kazakhmys Plc and Evraz Plc slumped more
than 7 percent this week, leading a gauge of mining stocks to
its longest streak of losses in 13 years. Alcatel-Lucent SA
advanced 3.9 percent as Deutsche Bank AG recommended that investors buy shares in the telecommunications equipment maker. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index (SXXP) fell 2.3 percent in the four-day week following the Easter holiday, completing its longest
stretch of losses in more than 10 months. The slump pared the
gauge’s advance so far this year to 2.7 percent.
- Retail Employment Slumps Most in Year as Stores Cut Back. Employment by retailers slumped the
most in more than a year last month, hurting growth in the U.S.
job market, as higher payroll taxes and concern fiscal policies
will reduce consumer spending prompt companies to trim costs. Retail
employment declined by 24,000 in March, the most since February 2012,
Labor Department data showed today in Washington. That included a drop
of 15,000 in clothing and
accessories stores and a decrease of 10,000 in building-material
and garden suppliers, according to the report. Retailers have been
cautious about hiring because of political paralysis in
Washington and concern the 2 percentage-point increase in
payroll taxes will slow purchases, said Jack Kleinhenz, chief economist for the National Retail Federation.
- Sequestration Seen as Airline Drag as U.S. Cuts Travel. U.S. government spending on air
travel probably fell as much as 30 percent in the past month
amid congressionally mandated budget cuts that threaten to keep
weighing on the industry, a JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst said. Demand from federal employees may stay at this level or
even lower “in perpetuity,” JPMorgan’s Jamie Baker wrote today
in a note to clients in which he estimated that the government
accounts for 3 percent to 4 percent of airline revenue. He pared
his full-year revenue projections by as much as 3 percent.
- Gross Says U.S. Growth Won’t Beat 2% in 2013: Tom Keene.
Pacific Investment Management Co.’s Bill Gross, manager of the world’s
biggest bond fund, said the U.S. economy won’t expand more than 2
percent this year even with one or two quarters of faster growth. “A 2
percent ‘new normal’ economy is the best we can expect,” Gross said in a
radio interview with Tom Keene after a report showed employers hired
fewer workers than forecast in March and a decline in the size of the
labor force pushed the
jobless rate down to a four-year low. “The sun isn’t going
down, but there’s certainly an element of dusk to it.”
- New Bird Flu Seen Having Some Markers of Airborne Killer. The
new bird influenza that’s killed
six people in eastern China has some of the genetic hallmarks of an
easily transmissible virus, according to the scientist who showed how
H5N1 avian flu could become airborne. The H7N9 strain, which is a
new virus formed as a result of two others merging their genetic
material, has features of viruses that are known to jump easily from
birds to mammals, and a mutation that may help it attach to cells in the
respiratory tract, said Ron Fouchier, a professor of molecular virology
at
Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands, in a telephone
interview yesterday. “That’s certainly not good news,” said Fouchier, who
reviewed a gene sequencing of H7N9 published by Chinese health
authorities. “This virus really doesn’t look like a bird virus
anymore; it looks like a mammalian virus.”
- Job and Export Drops Show Canada Hurt by Global Weakness. Canada’s
biggest employment loss since the recession four years ago and an
unexpected trade deficit underscore how the world’s 11th largest economy
is being hobbled by weak global demand. The drop of 54,500
positions reported today by Statistics Canada offset a 50,700 gain in
February, and lifted the unemployment rate to 7.2 percent from 7
percent. The merchandise
trade deficit for February was the 11th in a row, marking the
longest streak in records dating to 1988.
- Oil Heads for Biggest Weekly Drop in Six Months on Jobs. West Texas Intermediate crude headed
for the biggest weekly drop in six months as U.S. employers
hired less than half the number of workers forecast in March,
raising concern that economic growth won’t be strong enough to
support oil demand.
Prices tumbled for the fourth time in five days after the
Labor Department said payrolls climbed by 88,000, the smallest
gain in nine months. WTI oil for May delivery dropped 63 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $92.63 a barrel at 1:48 p.m. on the New York Mercantile
Exchange after falling to $91.91, the lowest intraday level
since March 21.
- Citigroup(C) Blows by Santander as Greenest Bank on Wind Power Push.
As developers rushed to build wind- power plants last year before U.S.
tax credits were set to run out, California’s Solano Wind Project was
racing against a different deadline: getting turbines running for the
state’s most blustery months. The Citigroup Inc (C).-backed wind farm
succeeded. In May, it began delivering enough new power for 44,000
homes, an effort that helped New York-based Citi bump Banco Santander SA (SAN) from its perch as the world’s greenest bank, Bloomberg Markets magazine will report in its May issue.
Fox News:
- North Korea moves missile launchers, issues safety warning to foreign embassies. As tensions continued to mount on the Korean peninsula, the communist
dictatorship in the North deployed mid-range missile launchers to its
east coast and reportedly warned foreign embassies Friday it cannot
guarantee the safety of diplomats after April 10. Reuters reported early Friday that North Korea deployed two of its
intermediate range missiles on mobile launchers and hid them on the east
coast of the country, citing a South Korean news agency. South Korea said Thursday North Korea moved a missile with
"considerable range" to its east coast after an unnamed spokesman for
the North Korean army warned the U.S. Wednesday that its military has
been cleared to wage an attack using "smaller, lighter and diversified
nuclear" weapons. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom foreign office confirmed in a statement
Friday that North Korea asked a number of foreign embassies in
Pyongyang to consider moving staff out since they could not assure
their safety in the event of conflict.
CNBC:
- Data Leak Shakes Notion of Secret Offshore Havens and, Possibly, Nerves. They are a large and diverse group that includes a Spanish heiress; the
daughter of the former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos; and Denise
Rich, the former wife of the disgraced trader Marc Rich, who was
pardoned by President Bill Clinton. But, according to a trove of secret
financial information released Thursday, all have money and share a
desire to hide it.
Zero Hedge:
Business Insider:
Reuters:
- Copper slides after weak U.S. jobs report.
- S&P says Britain's AAA at risk if growth, deficit disappoint. Standard & Poor's warned Britain
on Friday that worse-than-expected economic growth or slow
progress in fixing its budget deficit could cost the country its
top-notch credit rating. S&P affirmed the UK's AAA sovereign credit rating but kept
the outlook as negative. "The outlook remains negative, reflecting our view of at
least a one-in-three chance that we could lower the ratings if
the UK's economic and fiscal performances were to weaken beyond
our current expectations," S&P said in a statement.
Yonhap News:
- N. Korea loads two medium-range missiles on mobile launchers. North Korea has loaded two intermediate-range missiles onto mobile launchers and
hidden them in an unidentified facility near the east coast, Seoul military
sources said Friday, triggering speculation that the North is ready for an
abrupt missile launch.
RTHK:
- Bank of Japan's quantitative easing won't stimulate domestic
demand because it will result in a depreciation of the yen and thereby
increase the cost of raw materials, which are mostly imported, citing Yu
Yongding, a former academic adviser to the People's Bank of China. Yu
said the measures may not help Japan's economy recover and that there is
a chance the economy slides into recession, according to the report.
Style Underperformer:
Sector Underperformers:
- 1) Education -2.71 2) Gaming -2.30% 3) Networking -2.22%
Stocks Falling on Unusual Volume:
- RDWR, FFIV, ETP, ENB, ANV, CONN, THI, NTCT, DAL, SI, SLF, TTF, CRH, UNM, CVLT, PAMT, SWI, HTWR, CAVM, CWH, MPLX, IMO, HMIN, CP, ASR, PRU, MTW, FLT, JNPR, TEX, DAL and NTCT
Stocks With Unusual Put Option Activity:
- 1) LO 2) FFIV 3) FXY 4) WYNN 5) CSCO
Stocks With Most Negative News Mentions:
- 1) TEX 2) MAT 3) HPQ 4) CVLT 5) CAT
Charts:
Style Outperformer:
Sector Outperformers:
- 1) Oil Service +.28% 2) Steel +.19% 3) Utilities +.01%
Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume:
- NIHD, XCO, CRK, OWW, SRPT, JCP, BBG and CRK
Stocks With Unusual Call Option Activity:
- 1) NFX 2) FFIV 3) WLP 4) TLT 5) IGT
Stocks With Most Positive News Mentions:
- 1) IHS 2) LUV 3) CELG 4) TDC 5) WYN
Charts:
Evening Headlines
Bloomberg:
- Lew to Push Growth Amid Contagion Concerns in First Europe Visit.
Lew arrives April 8 for a two-day visit to meet with European Central
Bank President Mario Draghi in Frankfurt, German Finance Minister
Wolfgang Schaeuble in Berlin, French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici
in Paris and European Union officials in Brussels. He returns to
Washington the evening before President Barack Obama sends his overdue
fiscal 2014 budget to Congress on April 10. “Lew’s trip to Europe comes
at a critical juncture for the U.S. economy,” said Prasad, a former
International Monetary Fund official. “A flare-up of the euro zone debt crisis could create turmoil in global financial markets and set back the
fragile U.S. recovery.”
- Draghi's Whatever It Takes
Limited to More of Same: Euro Credit. The ECB president said yesterday
policy makers "stand ready to act" to bolster the flagging economy.
While they discussed lower interest rates and more long-term bank loans,
they failed to reach a consensus, according to three euro-area
officials familiar with the talks. The Governing Council didn't consider
a plan to boost company lending because it isn't ready, the officials
said on condition of anonymity.
- Hollande Dismisses Reshuffle as Political Crisis Hits Popularity. French
President Francois Hollande, in the midst of the worst political crisis
since entering office in May, dismissed speculation of a cabinet
reshuffle after a minister he’d charged with fighting tax evasion
admitted to a secret overseas bank account. “It’s not the government
that failed, but a man,” Hollande said yesterday at a press conference
in Rabat during a state visit to Morocco. “There’s no decision on the
government
to be taken.”
- Europe to Shut 10 Refineries as Profits Tumble. Oil refiners in Europe will shut 10
percent of their plants this decade as fuel demand falls to a
19-year low. Of the region’s 104 facilities, 10 will shut
permanently by
2020 from France to Italy to the Czech Republic, a Bloomberg survey of
six European refinery executives showed. Oil consumption is headed for a
fifth year of declines to the lowest level since 1994, the
International Energy Agency estimates. Two-thirds of European refineries
lost money in 2011, according to Essar Energy Plc (ESSR), owner of the
U.K.’s second-largest plant.
- China Consumer Sector
'Deteriorating'; BNP Paribas. No signs of recovery as overall
consumption growth slower than expected; consumer staples likely to
outperform as inventors stick with defensives in an uncertain Chinese
economy, analyst Charlie Y. Chen wrote.
- Chinese Airline Shares Fall on Bird Flu Concern.
China Southern Airlines Co. (1055), the country’s biggest domestic
carrier, and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. led a decline in shares of
Asian airlines on concern the widening bird flu infections may crimp
travel. China Southern plunged as much as 15 percent, the most since
September 2001, while Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong’s biggest airline,
dropped the most in almost 11 months. Shares in Air China Ltd.
(601111), China Eastern Airlines Corp., Singapore Airlines Ltd. (SIA)
and Qantas Airways Ltd. (QAN) also declined.
- Kospi Drops Most in 4 Months on North Korea Threats. The
won slid to a six-month low as the risk of conflict with North Korea
spurred capital outflows and monetary easing in Japan fanned speculation
South Korea will seek to prevent appreciation that puts exports at risk.
- Platinum to Slump as Europe Car Sales
Tumble: Chart of the Day. Platinum prices that tumbled to the lowest
since August may extend declines as a drop in European vehicle sales
crimps demand for the metal used in catalytic converters, according to
INTL FCStone. Total sales of cars and light trucks in Europe have
slipped for five straight months through February. Platinum prices may
fall 7.8% to $1,400 an ounce this year as consumption wanes, according
to Edward Meir, an analyst at FCStone.
- Copper Poised for Third Weekly Decline Amid Rising Stockpiles.
Copper traded near an eight-month
low, poised for a third weekly drop, on concern that growth is
slowing in China, the biggest user, and as global inventories continued
to climb. Metal for delivery in three months fell 0.2 percent to
$7,428.50 a metric ton on the London Metal Exchange at 11:03 a.m. in
Seoul. Prices are down 1.5 percent this week and yesterday touched the
lowest since Aug. 3. Futures for May delivery were little changed at
$3.3555 a pound on the Comex in New York. Markets in China are closed
today for a national holiday.
Inventories tracked by the LME rose for a 34th session to
579,175 tons, daily exchange figures showed. That’s the most
metal since October 2003.
- Crude Set for Biggest Weekly Drop Since October on Supply Gains.
Oil in New York traded near a two- week low and headed for its biggest
weekly drop since October after U.S. inventories climbed to a 22-year
high, raising
concern that slower economic growth may weaken fuel demand.
West Texas Intermediate futures were little changed, poised
for a 4 percent loss since the close on March 28, the most since
the week ended Oct. 26.
- SGX to Introduce Iron Ore Futures as Investors Wager on China. SGX AsiaClear, the world’s largest
clearer of iron ore swaps, is scheduled to start a futures
contract for the steel-making commodity next week as investors
seek to bet on the pace of Chinese growth and swings in prices. The
Singapore-based clearing house, a unit of Singapore Exchange Ltd. (SGX),
will offer the contracts from April 8 alongside the swaps, according to
a statement on its website. One futures
contract will be 100 metric tons compared with 500 tons for the
swaps, the website shows.
- Bombs Hit Damascus Like Shooting Stars as Battle Intensifies. Syrian businessman Ammar Sinan was
having dinner at a Damascus restaurant last week when mortar
rounds fired by rebel insurgents fell “like shooting stars” a
few streets away. “There were bombs, then the sound of sirens and then the
whoosh of the Katyusha launchers responding to the source of
fire,” Sinan said in an interview in Beirut. “Damascus is a dying city. You see it breaking up and
there’s nothing you can do about it,” he said. Damascus had escaped the worst of the violence that has
ripped through other big cities until a few months ago, when
rebels intensified their attacks on its suburbs. In February,
the insurgents declared an “epic” battle to “liberate” the
capital and stepped up their offensive against President Bashar al-Assad’s troops. “It’s
a political battle of great significance,” said Paul Salem, director of
the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Middle East Center in
Beirut. “Whoever wins Damascus can claim authority over Syria.”
- Freeh Says Corzine’s Risky Strategy Helped Fell MF Global.
Former MF Global Holdings Ltd. (MFGLQ) Chairman and Chief Executive
Officer Jon S. Corzine’s risky business strategies and mismanagement
helped accelerate the futures brokerage’s demise, according to a report
by bankruptcy trustee Louis Freeh. The 124-page report blames Corzine
and his management team for bungling an expansion of the company’s
traditional business model while ignoring deficiencies in its risk
controls. Corzine’s “aggressive trading strategy” that invested heavily
in European sovereign debt produced no significant revenue, and he and
Chief Financial Officer Henri Steenkamp knew that the company’s controls
were flawed as early as May 2010, according to the filing today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.
Wall Street Journal:
- Foreign Firms Brace for More Pressure in China. Recent troubles in China for Apple Inc. and Volkswagen AG represent a growing risk for global companies, as their dependence on the booming Chinese economy leaves them exposed to Beijing's shifting winds. In some cases, foreign companies are coming under withering attacks from state-run media. In others, they are running afoul of
Chinese regulators or government policies, such as an anticorruption
campaign that limits ostentatious gifts. On Monday, Apple apologized for its Chinese customer-service policies
and said it would revamp them following more than two weeks of
criticism from government-run media. It isn't clear whether the
spotlight will hurt Apple in what has become the tech giant's No. 2
market after the U.S.
Barron's:
- F5 Networks(FFIV) Drops 16%: Cuts FYQ2 View on North American Slowing.
Shares of networking equipment vendor F5 Networks (FFIV) were halted
this afternoon in late trading just before the company warned fiscal Q2
revenue and earnings per share will come in well below consensus owing
to a slowdown in North American sales, and some slowing in Europe, the
Middle East and Africa, especially among telecom and federal government
buyers. The stock is now down $14.64, or almost 17%, at $75.78. Said CEO John McAdam:
From a market
perspective, Telco bookings were down sharply on both a sequential and
year-over-year basis. U.S. Federal sales were also down significantly
from the second quarter a year ago.
Fox News:
- North Korea's missile launchers on the move, indicating possible new provocation. North Korea has begun moving its mid-range missile launchers,
possibly indicating a looming test as tensions are already boiling on
the peninsula, U.S. officials told Fox News. Earlier Thursday, South Korea said North Korea moved a missile with
"considerable range" to its east coast after an unnamed spokesman for
the North Korean army warned the U.S. Wednesday that its military has
been cleared to wage an attack using "smaller, lighter and diversified
nuclear" weapons.
MarketWatch.com:
- BRICS countries take their turn at bat: Andy Xie. Emerging nations take a swing without cheap liquidity from the West. The bursting of the BRICS bubble is the main source of instability in
2013. Because interest rates are low everywhere, this bursting is
happening in slow motion, confusing financial markets. As the months
pass, the picture will become clear.
The global economy is likely to be dragged into recession again.
CNBC:
- Soros to CNBC: What Japan Is Doing Is 'Quite Dangerous'. (video) The policy measures taken in Japan to revive
economic growth are "quite dangerous," billionaire investor George Soros
told CNBC in an interview on Friday. Japan's new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is on a concerted drive to kick
start the world's third largest economy, which has been hampered by two
decades of deflation. On Thursday, the Bank of Japan unveiled a slew of
radical steps to boost inflation, sparking huge gains in the Nikkei
stock index and sending the yen to three-and-a-half year lows against
the dollar on Friday.
- Economy Has No 'Real Lift,’ Says Wilbur Ross.
A lumbering U.S. economy is not growing fast enough to create jobs,
billionaire investor Wilbur Ross told CNBC on Thursday. "I think the
economy is going to continue to lumber ahead," he said in a "Closing
Bell" interview. "There's not real lift. There's not real top-line growth and top-line growth is what makes jobs."
Zero Hedge:
Business Insider:
IBD:
Washington Post:
- Bird flu death toll rises to six in China, CDC says. The death toll from a new strain of bird flu rose to six in China on
Thursday as scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention and around the world stepped up efforts to determine its
pandemic risk. There is no evidence that the H7N9 bird flu strain is
transmitted from human to human, officials said. At least 14 people in
China have been confirmed to have H7N9, all in the eastern part of the
country. According to the World Health Organization, three of the
most recent fatal cases involved men: a 38-year-old from Zhejiang
province, in eastern China, who became sick March 7; a 64-year-old, also
from Zhejiang, who became ill March 28; and a 48-year-old from Shanghai
who also became sick March 28.
- Obama rekindles talk about boys club after comment about California attorney general. President
Obama reopened the debate Thursday over whether his
administration is too influenced by men after praising the looks of
Kamala Harris, California’s attorney general and a possible future
gubernatorial candidate. “You have to be careful to, first of all, say
she is brilliant
and she is dedicated and she is tough, and she is exactly what you’d
want in anybody who is administering the law, and making sure that
everybody is getting a fair shake,” Obama said at a party fundraiser in
Atherton, Calif., a wealthy suburb of San Francisco. “She also happens
to be, by far, the best looking attorney general in the country.”
Reuters:
- U.S. Fed balance sheet grows to record size in latest week. The U.S. Federal Reserve's
balance sheet expanded to a record size on an increase in the
central bank's holdings of U.S. government debt, Fed data
released on Thursday showed.
The Fed's balance sheet, a broad gauge of its lending to the
financial system, stood at $3.198 trillion on April 3, compared
with $3.185 trillion on March 27.
Financial Times:
- Yellen latest to hint about slowing of QE3. The
US Federal Reserve could adjust the pace of asset purchases to send a
signal about its intentions, vice-chair Janet Yellen said on Thursday,
as she became the latest senior official to hint at a slowing of QE3.
Les Echos:
- French Confidence in Hollande Falls Below 30%. CSA polls finds President Francois Hollande is least popular president since establishment of Fifth Republic.
Sankei:
- Japan Considers Shooting Down North Korea Missile. North Korea recently transported a missile to its eastern coast, possibly for training and test-firing.
21st Century Business Herald:
- Beijing's municipal government summoned some of the city's developers for private discussions about the local real estate market in a move to further rein in prices in the Chinese capital, citing people familiar with the situation.
Evening Recommendations
Night Trading
- Asian equity indices are -1.75% to +.5% on average.
- Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 121.50 -.5 basis point.
- Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 97.25 -1.25 basis points.
- NASDAQ 100 futures -.17%.
Morning Preview Links
Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate
Economic Releases
8:30 am EST
- The Trade Deficit for February is estimated at -$44.6B versus -$44.4B in January.
- The Change in Non-farm Payrolls for March is estimated at 190K versus 236K in February.
- The Unemployment Rate for March is estimated at 7.7% versus 7.7% in February.
- Average Hourly Earnings for March are estimated to rise +.2% versus a +.2% gain in February.
3:00 pm EST
- Consumer Credit for February is estimated to fall to $15.0B versus $16.151B in January.
Upcoming Splits
Other Potential Market Movers
- The Eurozone retail sales report, German Factory Orders report and the Canadian Unemployment report could also impact trading today.
BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly lower, weighed down by transportation and technology shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open mixed and to weaken into the afternoon, finishing modestly lower. The Portfolio is 50% net long heading into the day.
Today's Market Take:
Broad Market Tone:
- Advance/Decline Line: Higher
- Sector Performance: Most Sectors Rising
- Market Leading Stocks: Underperforming
Equity Investor Angst:
- ISE Sentiment Index 69.0-11.5%
- Total Put/Call 1.09 +5.83%
Credit Investor Angst:
- North American Investment Grade CDS Index 87.95 -1.47%
- European Financial Sector CDS Index 179.05 -.11%
- Western Europe Sovereign Debt CDS Index 103.19 -.64%
- Emerging Market CDS Index 258.88 -1.59%
- 2-Year Swap Spread 15.25 -.75 bp
- 3-Month EUR/USD Cross-Currency Basis Swap -18.25 -.25 bp
Economic Gauges:
- 3-Month T-Bill Yield .06% unch.
- China Import Iron Ore Spot $135.90/Metric Tonne +.22%
- Citi US Economic Surprise Index 5.40 -3.0 points
- 10-Year TIPS Spread 2.49 unch.
Overseas Futures:
- Nikkei Futures: Indicating +450 open in Japan
- DAX Futures: Indicating +22 open in Germany
Portfolio:
- Higher: On gains in my tech/biotech/medical/retail sector longs and emerging markets shorts
- Disclosed Trades: Covered some of my (IWM)/(QQQ) hedges
- Market Exposure: Moved to 50% Net Long
