Thursday, January 09, 2014

Bull Radar

Style Outperformer:
  • Mid-Cap Value -.21%
Sector Outperformers:
  • 1) Airlines +1.36% 2) HMOs +1.28% 3) Utilities +.38%
Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume:
  • ICPT, GWPH, RCPT, SGMO, GPN, UAL, PWRD, ANGI, M and SWHC
Stocks With Unusual Call Option Activity:
  • 1) ARO 2) UAL 3) BBBY 4) TSN 5) USG
Stocks With Most Positive News Mentions:
  • 1) OMC 2) F 3) FDO 4) COST 5) GOOG
Charts:

Wednesday, January 08, 2014

Thursday Watch

Evening Headlines 
Bloomberg:
  • China Tells Banks to Improve Disclosures in Shadow-Lending Fight. China’s banking regulator told lenders to publish data including off-balance-sheet assets and interbank liabilities as the government steps up scrutiny of the shadow-finance industry. Lenders with total assets of 1.6 trillion yuan ($264 billion) or more must publish 12 indicators within four months of the end of each financial year, the China Banking Regulatory Commission said in a statement yesterday. The requirement is in line with rules published by the Basel Committee on international banking regulation in July, the CBRC said. 
  • China’s Producer Prices Slide in Sign of Weakness in Economy. China’s producer prices, a measure of the cost of goods as they leave the factory, extended the longest slide since the 1990s in December, adding to evidence that the world’s second-largest economy weakened last month. The producer-price index (SHCOMP) fell 1.4 percent from a year before, the 22nd straight drop, and consumer prices rose 2.5 percent -- less than the 2.7 percent median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey, a government report showed in Beijing. Today’s releases followed declines in gauges of manufacturing and services based on surveys of purchasing managers.
  • Shadow Banking. The scale of it is almost unfathomable: over $70 trillion worldwide. The Financial Stability Board says it poses “systemic risks” to the global financial system. It’s growing at phenomenal rates in China and India and booming in Western banking capitals as well. The catchall phrase “shadow banking” encompasses risky investment products, private lending between individuals, pawnshop and loan-shark operations in emerging markets, as well as more respectable activities like derivatives, money-market funds, securities lending and repurchase agreements at financial institutions in Europe and the U.S. The common denominator is that these activities flourish outside the regular banking system and often beyond the control of regulators and monetary policy. Together they show how hard it is to restrict risky lending without causing harm.  
  • Bank of Korea Holds Rate Even as Yen Clouds Export Outlook. The Bank of Korea kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged for an eighth straight month, even as a weak yen clouds the outlook for exporters competing with Japanese companies. Governor Kim Choong Soo and his board held the seven-day repurchase rate at 2.5 percent after a cut in May, the central bank said in a statement in Seoul today. Eighteen of 19 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News predicted the outcome, with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. foreseeing a cut.
  • Asian Stocks Fall as China Producer Prices Extend Decline. Asian stocks fell as China’s factory-gate prices extended the longest streak of declines since the Asian financial crisis and Federal Reserve minutes showed officials saw diminishing benefits from bond buying. Canon Inc. lost 1.8 percent in Tokyo on a report operating profit at the world’s biggest camera maker probably missed its own forecast. Belle International Holdings Ltd., China’s No. 1 seller of footwear, fell 2.3 percent after surging 13 percent yesterday. Daiei Inc. slumped 7.3 percent in Tokyo as the supermarket operator cut full-year forecasts. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 0.5 percent to 139.16 as of 11:26 a.m. in Tokyo, with about five stocks falling for every three that rose.
  • Rebar Rises for a Second Day as China Steel Output Declines. Steel reinforcement-bar futures in Shanghai climbed for a second day, extending a recovery from an almost seven-month low, as China’s crude steel output fell. Rebar for May delivery on the Shanghai Futures Exchange gained as much as 0.6 percent to 3,488 yuan ($576) a metric ton before trading at 3,478 yuan at 10:05 a.m. local time. The most-active contract closed at 3,465 yuan on Jan. 7, the lowest close since its inception in May. 
  • Corn Falls to 40-Month Low, Wheat Drops on Global Supply Outlook. Corn futures tumbled to a 40-month low and wheat fell to the cheapest since 2011 on speculation that a U.S. government report this week will show ample world supplies. Oilseeds also slumped. Inventories of corn in the season ending Oct. 1 probably will rise to 163.08 million metric tons, the highest since 2001, and U.S. winter-wheat planting climbed to a six-year high, according to Bloomberg surveys before the Department of Agriculture’s report on Jan. 10. Canadian Canola futures extended a slump to the lowest since August 2010, and soybeans in Chicago dropped.
  • Iraq Is New Schism for Saudis in Strained Alliance With West. Few goods transit the desert border between the Middle East’s two biggest oil producers, and Saudi authorities have built a fence to help ensure that political instability in Iraq doesn’t cross over either. Dysfunctional ties between the countries have come into focus as a wave of violence sweeps Iraq, turning it into another arena where Saudi interests are diverging from those of the U.S. Fighting is centered in Anbar province, bordering Saudi Arabia, where Sunni fighters with ties to al-Qaeda are rebelling against the Shiite-led government of Nouri al-Maliki, which is supported by Iran. 
  • Bed Bath & Beyond(BBBY) Falls After Profit Trails Analysts’ Estimates. Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (BBBY) fell in extended trading after it reported quarterly net income and forecast fourth quarter profit that trailed analysts’ estimates. The shares declined 8.4 percent to $72.99 at 4:50 p.m. after gaining less than 1 percent to $79.68 at the close in New York.
Wall Street Journal: 
  • Fed Eyes Bubble Risks, Minutes Show. Federal Reserve officials in December turned their attention to the risk of dangerous financial bubbles emerging as they scanned a brightening economic outlook and formulated a plan to gradually wind down their bond-buying program this year. While officials agreed that threats to financial stability were modest, the issue was at the center of wide-ranging discussions about emerging threats to the economy, according to minutes of the central bank's Dec. 17-18 policy meeting, which were released Wednesday with the traditional three-week lag. Watching for bubble threats could become one of the first big issues on the plate of Fed Vice Chairwoman Janet Yellen, who takes the reins as chairwoman on Feb. 1 after Ben Bernanke's term as the Fed's leader ends.
  • Borrowers Hit Social-Media Hurdles. Regulators Have Concerns About Lenders' Use of Facebook(FB), Other Sites. More lending companies are mining Facebook, Twitter and other social-media data to help determine a borrower's creditworthiness or identity, a trend that is raising concerns among consumer groups and regulators. Lending companies—some of which are backed with venture funding from Google Ventures, the venture-capital arm of Google Inc., and Accel Partners, an early Facebook Inc. investor—are looking at potential problems such as whether applicants put the same job information on their loan application as they posted on LinkedIn, or if they shared on Facebook that they had been let go by an employer. A small business that draws negative reviews on eBay also could undermine its chances of getting more credit, lending companies say.  
  • Bridge-Spat Emails Pose Questions For Christie. Emails suggesting that close aides to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie engineered traffic jams as political retribution against a Democratic mayor are turning into a major test for the national ambitions of a popular Republican considered a leading 2016 presidential contender.
  • Gates on Obama. The former Pentagon chief's memoir explains what the world knows. The open secret of Washington memoirs is that they typically confirm what we already know or suspect. In the case of the excerpts from the forthcoming book by Robert Gates, who was Defense Secretary for two years under George W. Bush and two and a half under President Obama, this isn't reassuring.
Fox News:
MarketWatch.com:
CNBC:
Zero Hedge: 
Business Insider: 
Reuters:
  • Novartis sued by U.S. states over alleged kickbacks to pharmacy firm. U.S. states have sued Novartis over accusations the Swiss drugmaker paid kickbacks to a New York pharmacy company to promote its Exjade drug to treat excessive iron in the blood, the New York Attorney General said. The complaint, unsealed on Wednesday, says Novartis paid New York-based specialty pharmacy company BioScrip to keep patients on Exjade at a time when the Swiss company feared patients were discontinuing its use because of harmful side effects. 
  • Russia again blocks U.N. Security Council from condemning Syria attacks. Russia blocked a U.N. Security Council statement on Wednesday that would have expressed outrage at deadly airstrikes by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces and condemned the use of missiles and "barrel bombs" in towns, U.N. diplomats said. Russia, a staunch Assad ally, opposed a similar statement on December 19 that would have condemned attacks by Syrian government troops on civilians. Russia, joined by China, has also vetoed three Security Council resolutions that would have condemned Assad's government and threatened it with sanctions. 
  • Qualcomm(QCOM) CEO says still in the dark on China antitrust probe. Qualcomm's CEO Paul Jacobs said on Wednesday that the U.S. mobile chipmaker still has not been notified about why it has come under antitrust scrutiny in China since late last year. In November, Qualcomm announced that China's National Development and Reform Commission had launched an antitrust probe into the company. The chipmaker said it was unaware of any possible violations.
  • U.S. Senate panel to mull regulation of banks, physical commodities. A subcommittee of the powerful Senate Banking Committee has scheduled a hearing for Jan. 15 to discuss regulating Wall Street's role in physical commodity markets. Among the witnesses scheduled to speak at the panel are top oversight officials with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and an official from the Federal Reserve's banking supervision arm. The hearing comes as the Fed reconsiders exemptions given to banks since the early 2000s that allow them to engage in the previously prohibited trading of physical commodities.
Financial Times:
  • France Should Impose Tax on Smartphones, Film Report Says. Govt-commissioned film industry report revives proposal to introduce 1% tax on sale of devices such as smartphones, tablets.
Telegraph: 
21st Century Business Herald:
  • China to Cut 2014 Railway Fixed-Asset Investment. China's 2014 railway fixed-asset investment will be lower than the 660b yuan spent in 2013, citing a person who will attend a railway work conference organized by China Railway Corp. today. China Railway Corp. is cutting investment to pay more attention to investment returns, the report says.
Evening Recommendations
  • None of note
Night Trading
  • Asian equity indices are -.50% to +.25% on average.
  • Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 138.50 +1.5 basis points.
  • Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 108.0 -1.5 basis points. 
  • FTSE-100 futures +.09%.
  • S&P 500 futures -.02%.
  • NASDAQ 100 futures -.02%.
Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note

Company/Estimate
  • (AYI)/.85
  • (FDO)/.69
  • (SVU)/.13
  • (PRGS)/.41
  • (AA)/.06
  • (PSMT)/.73
  • (CUDA)/.00 
Economic Releases
8:30 am EST
  • Initial Jobless Claims are estimated to fall to 335K versus 339K prior.
  • Continuing Claims are estimated to rise to 2850K versus 2833K prior.
Upcoming Splits
  • None of note
Other Potential Market Movers
  • The Fed's Kocherlakota speaking, Fed's George speaking, ECB rate decision, BoE rate decision, China Industrial Production/Consumer Confidence, China CPI, $13B 30Y T-Bond auction, Challenger Job Cuts report for December, weekly Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, weekly EIA natural gas inventory report and the RBC Consumer Outlook for January could also impact trading today.
BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly lower, weighed down by industrial 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 25% net long heading into the day.

Stocks Falling into Final Hour on Rising Long-Term Rates, Emerging Markets Debt Angst, Technical Selling, Energy/Retail Sector Weakness

Broad Equity Market Tone:
  • Advance/Decline Line: Modestly Lower
  • Sector Performance: Mixed
  • Volume: Slightly Above Average
  • Market Leading Stocks: Performing In Line
Equity Investor Angst:
  • Volatility(VIX) 12.95 +.23%
  • Euro/Yen Carry Return Index 148.40 -.10%
  • Emerging Markets Currency Volatility(VXY) 9.11 -.11%
  • S&P 500 Implied Correlation 50.36 +.86%
  • ISE Sentiment Index 155.0 +1.31%
  • Total Put/Call .72 +1.41%
  • NYSE Arms .73 -41.86% 
Credit Investor Angst:
  • North American Investment Grade CDS Index 65.19 +1.52%
  • European Financial Sector CDS Index 83.87 +3.74%
  • Western Europe Sovereign Debt CDS Index 52.0 unch.
  • Emerging Market CDS Index 281.20 +2.64%
  • 2-Year Swap Spread 11.0 +.75 basis point
  • TED Spread 20.0 unch.
  • 3-Month EUR/USD Cross-Currency Basis Swap -1.25 +.5 basis point
Economic Gauges:
  • 3-Month T-Bill Yield .04% unch.
  • Yield Curve 257.0 +3 basis points
  • China Import Iron Ore Spot $131.50/Metric Tonne -1.72%
  • Citi US Economic Surprise Index 63.40 +2.4 points
  • Citi Emerging Markets Economic Surprise Index 3.10 +1.6 points
  • 10-Year TIPS Spread 2.28 +4 basis points
Overseas Futures:
  • Nikkei Futures: Indicating -106 open in Japan
  • DAX Futures: Indicating +3 open in Germany
Portfolio: 
  • Higher: On gains in my biotech/medical sector longs, index hedges and emerging markets shorts
  • Disclosed Trades: Added to my (IWM)/(QQQ) hedges
  • Market Exposure: Moved to 25% Net Long

Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
  • Euro-Area Unemployment at 12.1% Shows Economic Struggles. Euro-area unemployment held at a record in November as policy makers struggled to bolster the recovery from the currency bloc’s longest recession. The jobless rate remained at 12.1 percent, the European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg said today. That’s in line with the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of 26 economists. After several revisions of previous months’ data, unemployment has been stable at that level since April. 
  • Did Soros Just Predict a China CrashGeorge Soros probably shouldn't expect any warm invitations to Beijing -- not with the much-reviled short seller warning of a giant Chinese crash.
  • Europe Stocks Remain Little Changed After ADP Jobs Report. European stocks were little changed, near their highest level since May 2008, after a report showed U.S. companies hired more workers than forecast. A gauge of European banks rose for a fourth day as bond yields fell for the region’s most indebted countries. Celesio AG rallied 9.3 percent amid a report that McKesson Corp. may increase its bid for the drug distributor. J Sainsbury Plc lost 2.4 percent after the retailer cut its full-year sales forecast. Kion Group AG slid 2 percent after its biggest shareholder sold a 10.8 percent stake in the forklift maker. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index added 0.1 percent to 329.75 at the close of trading in London after the equity benchmark yesterday climbed to its highest level in five years and seven months.
  • Gold Declines for Third Day on Dollar Strength, U.S. Jobs Data. Gold futures for February delivery lost 0.7 percent to $1,220.70 an ounce at 10:02 a.m. on the Comex in New York. Prices declined 0.7 percent in the previous two days
  • WTI Oil Falls to Five-Week Low on Products Supply. WTI for February delivery dropped 74 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $92.93 a barrel at 12:30 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It touched $92.81, the lowest level since Dec. 2. Futures traded at $93.54 before the release of the report at 10:30 a.m. in Washington. The volume of all futures traded was 13 percent above the 100-day average.
  • Companies in U.S. Added 238,000 Jobs in December, ADP Says. Companies added more workers than projected in December as U.S. employers grew more optimistic about the prospects for demand, a private report based on payrolls showed today. The 238,000 increase in employment was the biggest since November 2012 and followed a revised 229,000 gain in November that was stronger than initially estimated, according to the ADP Research Institute in Roseland, New Jersey. The December tally exceeded the most optimistic forecast in a Bloomberg survey in which the median projection called for a 200,000 advance.
  • Treasuries Retreat While U.S. Stocks Fluctuate After Jobs Report. The yield on 10-year Treasury notes rose five basis points to 2.99 percent as of 11:09 a.m. in New York. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slid 0.1 percent to 1,836.17. The dollar appreciated versus 14 of 16 major peers and gold dropped 0.7 percent.
  • Calls to Drop 1970s-Era U.S. Oil Export Ban Stir Fight. Almost four decades after the Arab oil embargo, political leaders are beginning to contemplate what was once unthinkable: lifting restrictions on the export of U.S. crude oil. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, the top Republican on the Senate’s energy committee, and the American Petroleum Institute held events yesterday to push for an end to the export ban. U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz has said it’s time to revisit the policy amid forecasts the U.S. will surpass Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the world’s largest oil producer by next year. 
  • Forest(FRX) Agrees to Acquire Aptalis for $2.9 Billion in CashForest Laboratories Inc. (FRX), maker of the Alzheimer’s drug Namenda, will buy Aptalis Pharma for $2.9 billion, adding treatments for gastrointestinal ailments and cystic fibrosis.
  • J.C. Penney(JCP) Sinks After Statement Lacks Sales Data. J.C. Penney Co. (JCP) tumbled after raising doubts about its turnaround by releasing a two-paragraph statement on holiday results that didn’t include sales data it had provided the previous three months. The shares sank 7.6 percent to $7.57 at 12:13 p.m. in New York and earlier fell as much as 9.3 percent for the largest intraday drop since Dec. 5.
  • Riverbed(RVBD) Receives $3.08 Billion Takeover Offer From Elliott. Elliott, which along with its affiliates owns about 10.5 percent of Riverbed, offered to pay $19 a share, according to a statement today, a 6.4 percent premium to the stock’s close yesterday.

Wall Street Journal:
Fox News:
  • Outbreak of 'nightmare bacteria' in Illinois stirs worry. The largest outbreak to date of one strain of what authorities have called "nightmare bacteria" is adding to concerns about the spread of such drug-resistant bugs. The outbreak, centered on a hospital in a Chicago suburb, has infected 44 people in Illinois over the past year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The bug, known as carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae, bears a rare enzyme that breaks down antibiotics. "This is a huge cluster," said Alex Kallen, a medical officer with the CDC and supervisor for the Illinois outbreak investigation, noting that only 97 cases of the infection have been reported to the agency since 2009
  • Obama administration under pressure to turn attention back to Iraq. As Al Qaeda-aligned insurgents make unprecedented post-war gains in Iraq, U.S. military officials and others in the Obama administration are keeping their distance -- despite mounting calls to ratchet up involvement amid fears the country is teetering on the brink of civil war. Administration officials are now trying to find some middle ground, which so far includes sending additional shipments of Hellfire missiles to Baghdad, as well as surveillance drones. Lawmakers, though, claim it's clear the administration could be doing more.
MarketWatch:
  • Fed tapered as it saw QE benefits slip over time. Federal Reserve officials agreed in December to start to wind down their asset-purchase program as most believed that the benefits of the controversial policy were eroding over time, according to minutes from their last meeting released Wednesday.
CNBC: 
  • US moves closer to letting banks into pot business. (video) Recreational marijuana is legal in Colorado and Washington, and medicinal marijuana laws exist in 20 states. New York soon will become No. 21 on that list. But federal law currently prohibits banks and credit card companies from processing pot business transactions. That may all be about to change
  • Consumers say they're shelling out more for health insurance. Feeling lighter in the wallet and unhappier about Obamacare? You're not alone. Support for the Affordable Care Act has plummeted since late last summer, and people with employer-based health insurance say they increasingly are paying more for out-of-pocket medical expenses, a new Bankrate.com survey released Wednesday revealed.
ZeroHedge: 
Business Insider:
Quartz:
Reuters:
  • Alibaba division bans bitcoin after China crackdown as IPO looms. China's biggest online marketplace, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's Taobao, will ban the sale of bitcoins on the heels of a government crackdown against the virtual currency to plug a potential gap in its tight controls on capital flows. 
  • 2014’s top 10 political risks by Ian Bremmer
  • Brazil posts biggest dollar outflow in over a decade. Brazil recorded a net foreign exchange outflow of $12.3 billion in 2013, the first negative result since the global financial crisis in 2008, and the worst deficit since investors panicked over the election of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in 2002, central bank data showed on Wednesday. 
  • High liquidity mustn't create bubbles, Schaeuble says. Policymakers must closely watch ultra-high liquidity provided by the world's big central banks to ensure no new asset bubbles form, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Wednesday, reiterating a long-standing warning. "We must keep a watch on liquidity levels to ensure new bubbles aren't being created," Schaeuble said at a news conference with visiting U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. "We share a responsibility to do everything to prevent new crises and new bubbles from emerging," he said, adding however that politicians should not tell central banks how to do their jobs.
AP:
  • Reversals in Hard-Won Iraqi City Vex Veterans. The image of two charred American bodies hanging from a bridge as a jubilant crowd pelted them with shoes seared the name Fallujah into the American psyche. The brutal house-to-house battle to tame the Iraqi insurgent stronghold cemented its place in U.S. military history. So it is no surprise that the city's recent fall to al-Qaida-linked forces has touched a nerve for the service members who fought and bled there. Some call the news "disheartening," saying it revives painful memories of their sacrifice.
Telegraph:
Echoing fears that European policymakers remain in a state of cognitive dissonance – recognizing the need for root-and-branch overhaul of peripheral banks, but backtracking on joint liability plans – Christopher Flowers, the legendary FIG investor who now runs the £2.3 billion ($3.5 billion) private equity group JC Flowers, sounded the alarm over the negative sovereign-bank feedback loop. In a shot across the bows of market bulls, who cite the return of capital flows to weaker eurozone states, Flowers issued a stark warning: "There is a scenario where we have a Lehman-type event: we wake up some Thursday and a big country is in trouble. "And the ECB will have to decide to support banks x, y, z. And then the ECB will, in fact, decide to own bank x, y, z.


While we want you to share, we ask you use the functions on-site rather than copy/paste. See T's & C's for details. http://www.euromoney.com/Article/3211790/CurrentIssue/88924/Restructuring-Flowers-slams-Europe-over-inaction.html?copyrightInfo=true
Kyodo:
  • Japan's Ruling LDP Scraps No-War Pledge in 2014 Draft. The draft deletes a phrase vowing devotion to a peaceful state, while adding language honoring the war dead in the section on visiting the Yasukuni shrine.
Nikkei:
  • Canon FY Op Profit About 320b Yen, Below Forecast. Misses co. forecast of 360b yen. Mean analyst est. 359.6b yen.

Bear Radar

Style Underperformer:
  • Large-Cap Value -.40%
Sector Underperformers:
  • 1) Coal -1.08% 2) Energy -.85% 3) Retail -.75%
Stocks Falling on Unusual Volume:
  • AZZ, AMBA, SNY, BR, KRO, NBIX, RBCN, GLPI, SHOO, TAL, INGR, SI, QCOR, AKRX, FEYE, REV, CLI, HRS, HOMB, CLX, VRSK, SCSS, TXTR, ABAX, GES, ITG, IBKR, GOGO, ARII and TCS
Stocks With Unusual Put Option Activity:
  • 1) UTX 2) COH 3) JNPR 4) SNDK 5) BHI
Stocks With Most Negative News Mentions:
  • 1) TWTR 2) FB 3) THC 4) HUM 5) GS
Charts:

Bull Radar

Style Outperformer:
  • Mid-Cap Growth +.24%
Sector Outperformers:
  • 1) Biotech +1.63% 2) Semis +1.18% 3) Gaming +.87%
Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume:
  • FRX, APOL, PWRD, CCIH, STZ, ORMP, TASR, SB, QIHU, FLIR, MCK, BITA, MTW, MU, ROVI, RVBD, SODA, SNDK, YELP, MCK, DV and ENDP
Stocks With Unusual Call Option Activity:
  • 1) TMO 2) APOL 3) RVBD 4) HUM 5) IRM
Stocks With Most Positive News Mentions:
  • 1) FRX 2) STZ 3) YELP 4) RVBD 5) SBUX
Charts: