Bloomberg:
- Kurds Battle Islamic State for Strategic Syrian Hilltop. Islamic
State fighters advanced into Kobani near Turkey’s border with Syria, as
the three-week battle for the mostly Kurdish town intensified. Fierce
fighting raged in eastern neighborhoods of Kobani, as the militants
unleashed the heaviest barrage of artillery fire since they began
advancing on the town in mid-September, Al Jazeera television reported.
The Islamic State flag was flying over a building in Kobani, Jazeera
said.
- Hong Kong Government Agrees Formal Talks With Protesters. Hong
Kong’s government and pro-democracy protesters agreed to start formal
talks as demonstrations that shut roads and offices in the city showed
signs of
winding down.
- Ruble Slumps Toward Intervention Levels, Heading for Record Low. The ruble weakened for a second day,
testing the central bank’s intervention level, as oil slumped to
the lowest level in more than two years. The ruble retreated 0.1 percent to 44.4893 against the
regulator’s basket of dollars and euros at 6 p.m. in Moscow,
when the central bank stops its market operations. The price of
oil, which with natural gas brings the state budget half its
revenue, fell 0.9 percent to $91.52 a barrel in London, the lowest level
since June 2012. The ruble dropped 14 percent against the dollar last
quarter, the worst performance globally,
as crude slid and clashes continued in east Ukraine.
- German Factory Orders Slump Most Since 2009: Economy. (video) German factory orders (GRIORTMM) plunged the most since 2009, underlining the risk of a slowdown in Europe’s largest economy. Orders,
adjusted for seasonal swings and inflation, fell 5.7 percent in August,
the Economy Ministry in Berlin said today. Economists predicted a 2.5
percent decline, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg
News survey. The data are volatile, and the drop followed a 4.9 percent
increase in
July that was the most in more than a year. Orders fell 1.3 percent from
a year earlier.
- Ebola Screening at U.S. Airports Under Consideration.
The Obama administration is considering screening airline passengers for
Ebola symptoms as they arrive in the U.S. from some West African
nations, an approach that had been previously rejected.
- Paulson Testifies He Discussed Financial Bailout With China. Henry Paulson, the former treasury secretary, said he talked with
China about helping bail out financial firms in 2008, in the first
discussion of the rescue scheme in a court by one of its leading
architects. Paulson’s testimony of less than half a day left lawyers
scrambling for witnesses because Timothy Geithner, the head of the New
York Fed in 2008, wasn’t available yet. The federal court in Washington
adjourned until the afternoon.
- Europe Shares Pare Gains in Last Hour; Index Futures Drop. (video) European shares rose for a second day, paring gains in the last hour
of trading. Stock-index futures declined after the market close. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index added 0.2 percent to 336 at the close of trading, after earlier climbing as much as 0.8 percent.
Futures on the Euro Stoxx 50 Index expiring in December fell 0.5
percent at 5:31 p.m. in London. “It’s a shaky rebound,” said Michael
Woischneck, who manages equities at Lampe Asset Management in
Dusseldorf, Germany. “Europe’s economy is taking longer to heal and data
is still weak. The market really needs good earnings and strong
outlooks out of the U.S.” The Stoxx 600 dropped 2.1 percent last week.
- Tumbling Oil Prices Punish Hedge Funds Betting on Gains. Hedge funds increased bets on rising oil prices just before crude futures tumbled to a 17-month low
on signs that global supply is outstripping demand.
- Credit Swap Indexes Trade After $17 Trillion Market Overhaul. The biggest overhaul of the global
credit derivatives market starts today with new benchmark index
contracts addressing flaws that prevented some bondholders from
being fully compensated for losses. The shakeup of the $17 trillion credit-default swap market
increases the cost of insuring junior bank bonds and sovereign
debt because new terms provide greater protection. The Markit
iTraxx Crossover Index of swaps linked to high-yield borrowers
is also being broadened to reflect the growth of the junk bond
market.
- S&P 500 Companies Spend 95% of Profits on Buybacks, Payouts.
Companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index really love their
shareholders. Maybe too much. They’re poised to spend $914 billion on
share buybacks and dividends this year, or about 95 percent of earnings,
data compiled by Bloomberg and S&P Dow Jones Indices show. Money
returned to stock owners exceeded profits in the first quarter and may
again in the third. The proportion of cash flow used for repurchases
has almost doubled over the last decade while it’s slipped for capital
investments, according to Jonathan Glionna, head of U.S. equity strategy research at Barclays Plc. “You can only go so far with financial engineering before you actually have to have a business with real growth,”
Chris Bouffard, chief investment officer who oversees $9 billion at
Mutual Fund Store in Overland Park, Kansas, said by phone on Oct. 2. “Companies have done
about all that they can in terms of maximizing the ability to do those
buybacks.”
CNBC:
- Waldorf becomes most expensive hotel ever sold: $1.95 billion. (video)
The hotel famously called "the greatest of them all" is now the most
expensive of them all. Hilton Worldwide Holdings said it's selling the famed Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York for $1.95 billion to China-based buyer Anbang Insurance Group.
- Ken Griffin's Citadel sees huge surge in assets. Ken Griffin may be making news for a nasty divorce, but his hedge fund firm has quietly been sucking up assets. Chicago-based Citadel now has $24 billion under
management, 50 percent more than the $16.1 billion it managed at the beginning of 2014, according to industry publication Alpha, citing people familiar with the firm.
ZeroHedge:
Business Insider:
Style Underperformer:
Sector Underperformers:
- 1) Alt Energy -3.91% 2) Hospitals -1.57% 3) Biotech -1.31%
Stocks Falling on Unusual Volume:
- LVNTA, EZCH, CSTM, HRB, QCLN, NRP, DECK, VOC, TKMR, BCRX, VNR, OPWR, TSL, MYE, VDSI, GRFS, ALTR, XOOM, KN, BOFI, UIS, SMCI, BWLD, LOGM, PKX, FSS, TTPH, EMES, PBI, LU, LOGM, HRB, MKTO, SMCI and HCLP
Stocks With Unusual Put Option Activity:
- 1) XLV 2) LL 3) XLP 4) CAR 5) EWY
Stocks With Most Negative News Mentions:
- 1) AIG 2) WFC 3) BWLD 4) MBLY 5) F
Charts:
Style Outperformer:
Sector Outperformers:
- 1) Medical Equipment +1.18% 2) Homebuilders +1.08% 3) Steel +.89%
Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume:
- CFN, DRTX, BDX, CMRX, HPQ, LINTA, PBR, ITUB and BBD
Stocks With Unusual Call Option Activity:
- 1) MNK 2) HRB 3) SNSS 4) KR 5) LLY
Stocks With Most Positive News Mentions:
- 1) NOC 2) DIS 3) BDX 4) AAPL 5) ORCL
Charts:
Week Ahead by Bloomberg.
Wall St. Week Ahead by Reuters.
Weekly Economic Calendar by Briefing.com.
BOTTOM LINE: I expect US stocks to finish the week mixed as Ebola
fears, global growth worries and Fed rate hike concerns offset
bargain-hunting, short-covering and technical buying. My
intermediate-term trading indicators are giving neutral signals and the
Portfolio is 75% net long heading into the week.
The Weekly Wrap by Briefing.com.
*5-Day Change
Indices
- Russell 2000 1,104.74 -1.30%
- S&P 500 High Beta 33.04 -1.14%
- Wilshire 5000 20,418.60 -.86%
- Russell 1000 Growth 918.57 -.72%
- Russell 1000 Value 983.40 -.90%
- S&P 500 Consumer Staples 468.10 +.63%
- Solactive US Cyclical 133.25 -1.78%
- Morgan Stanley Technology 962.97 -.90%
- Transports 8,481.99 -.03%
- Bloomberg European Bank/Financial Services 108.28 -2.51%
- MSCI Emerging Markets 41.47 -2.52%
- HFRX Equity Hedge 1,171.10 -.88%
- HFRX Equity Market Neutral 978.56 +.33%
Sentiment/Internals
- NYSE Cumulative A/D Line 223,396 -.75%
- Bloomberg New Highs-Lows Index -1060 -287
- Bloomberg Crude Oil % Bulls 32.0 -24.37%
- CFTC Oil Net Speculative Position 295,946 -.04%
- CFTC Oil Total Open Interest 1,485,856 +.35%
- Total Put/Call .91 -18.75%
- ISE Sentiment 79.0 -3.66%
- Volatility(VIX) 14.55 -2.02%
- S&P 500 Implied Correlation 51.55 -.37%
- G7 Currency Volatility (VXY) 7.58 -.92%
- Emerging Markets Currency Volatility (EM-VXY) 7.81 +.64%
- Smart Money Flow Index 11,427.27 +.71%
- ICI Money Mkt Mutual Fund Assets $2.59 Trillion +.88%
- ICI US Equity Weekly Net New Cash Flow -$1.478 Billion
Futures Spot Prices
- Reformulated Gasoline 237.85 -4.25%
- Heating Oil 261.63 -3.13%
- Bloomberg Base Metals Index 190.24 -1.85%
- US No. 1 Heavy Melt Scrap Steel 359.0 USD/Ton unch.
- China Iron Ore Spot 78.60 USD/Ton n/a
- UBS-Bloomberg Agriculture 1,165.89 +.60%
Economy
- ECRI Weekly Leading Economic Index Growth Rate 2.1% unch.
- Philly Fed ADS Real-Time Business Conditions Index .0866 -1.37%
- S&P 500 Blended Forward 12 Months Mean EPS Estimate 128.83 +.02%
- Citi US Economic Surprise Index 18.30 -7.9 points
- Citi Eurozone Economic Surprise Index -45.80 -.8 point
- Citi Emerging Markets Economic Surprise Index -18.60 -1.8 points
- Fed Fund Futures imply 36.0% chance of no change, 64.0% chance of 25 basis point cut on 9/17
- US Dollar Index 86.69 +1.25%
- Euro/Yen Carry Return Index 143.47 -.87%
- Yield Curve 188.0 -7.0 basis points
- 10-Year US Treasury Yield 2.43% -10.0 basis points
- Federal Reserve's Balance Sheet $4.409 Trillion -.20%
- U.S. Sovereign Debt Credit Default Swap 17.36 +4.94%
- Illinois Municipal Debt Credit Default Swap 166.0 -2.37%
- Western Europe Sovereign Debt Credit Default Swap Index 26.47 -5.73%
- Asia Pacific Sovereign Debt Credit Default Swap Index 69.90 +1.13%
- Emerging Markets Sovereign Debt CDS Index 234.76 +1.57%
- Israel Sovereign Debt Credit Default Swap 81.69 +2.76%
- Iraq Sovereign Debt Credit Default Swap 357.45 +3.07%
- Russia Sovereign Debt Credit Default Swap 251.33 +4.90%
- China Blended Corporate Spread Index 319.36 +2.74%
- 10-Year TIPS Spread 1.94% -3.0 basis points
- TED Spread 22.50 -.5 basis point
- 2-Year Swap Spread 25.75 +3.0 basis points
- 3-Month EUR/USD Cross-Currency Basis Swap -10.0 -1.0 basis point
- N. America Investment Grade Credit Default Swap Index 59.99 -8.82%
- European Financial Sector Credit Default Swap Index 58.53 -7.26%
- Emerging Markets Credit Default Swap Index 278.78 +5.79%
- CMBS AAA Super Senior 10-Year Treasury Spread to Swaps 83.50 +1.0 basis point
- M1 Money Supply $2.861 Trillion -1.11%
- Commercial Paper Outstanding 1,052.90 -.50%
- 4-Week Moving Average of Jobless Claims 294,750 -3,750
- Continuing Claims Unemployment Rate 1.8% unch.
- Average 30-Year Mortgage Rate 4.19% -1 basis point
- Weekly Mortgage Applications 337.80 -.18%
- Bloomberg Consumer Comfort 34.8 -.7 point
- Weekly Retail Sales +4.10% unch.
- Nationwide Gas $3.32/gallon -.02/gallon
- Baltic Dry Index 1,037 -1.14%
- China (Export) Containerized Freight Index 1,187.67 -1.55%
- Oil Tanker Rate(Arabian Gulf to U.S. Gulf Coast) 20.0 +14.29%
- Rail Freight Carloads 275,071 -1.68%
Best Performing Style
Worst Performing Style
Leading Sectors
Lagging Sectors
Weekly High-Volume Stock Gainers (25)
- AMBI, BAGL, ESPR, MOVE, ARDX, AMAG, IMDZ, JNS, KITE, ATHL, RLD, CMCT, TIBX, AGIO, FNHC, CEMP, LMOS, SAGE, NYT, BREW, DWA, AYI, ADPT, SNX and HAWK
Weekly High-Volume Stock Losers (18)
- HMST, NWSA, AMPH, IRM, TERP, WLK, CLH, CAR, F, ZINC, KPTI, ELGX, TSE, FINL, POWL, GTLS, PDFS and CVEO
Weekly Charts
ETFs
Stocks
*5-Day Change
