Style Underperformer:
Sector Underperformers:
- 1) Semis -5.81% 2) Networking -3.90% 3) Social Media -2.32%
Stocks Falling on Unusual Volume:
- MU, JNPR, KN, MCHP, VNR, MTW, BBEP, CQP, NXPI, IDE, AVGO, TXN, CP, SRF, PTCT, TK, LRE, QRE, KLAC, ATLS, SWKS, TYG, LLTC, ARW, ARP, FAST, CIE, ALTR, VC, ATVI, VECO, TRGP, PMT, EXH, VSH, SNPS, AMAT, ENLC, NVDA, INTC, EXP, BRCM, FNSR, KPTI, CDNS, CJES, MXIM, ADI, NATI, MIDD, PANW, MTZ, SOXX, APH, TER, AVT, HEES, MSCC, BBEP, TSLA, CALD, LRCX, IPHI, IDTI, KN, SM, AMBA, XLNX, SSE, ICPT, ANET, ISIL, RATE, ARW, POWI, DIOD, MPWR, CAVM, FSL, SANM, CODE and FCS
Stocks With Unusual Put Option Activity:
- 1) SMH 2) CZR 3) XLB 4) JNPR 5)P
Stocks With Most Negative News Mentions:
- 1) MCHP 2) MTW 3) JNPR 4) C 5) JCP
Charts:
Style Outperformer:
Sector Outperformers:
- 1) HMOs +.52% 2) Tobacco +.40% 3) Utilities +.29%
Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume:
Stocks With Unusual Call Option Activity:
- 1) BYD 2) RICE 3) EXAS 4) ALLY 5) KR
Stocks With Most Positive News Mentions:
- 1) PGR 2) WMT 3) AAPL 4) KO 5) KND
Charts:
Evening Headlines
Bloomberg:
- Kurdish Ammo Runs Low in Kobani as Turkey Controls Exit. Kurds
defending Kobani risk running out of ammunition as Islamic State
surrounds the town and Turkey controls their only outlet, according to a
Kurdish lawmaker in Turkey and observers of the fighting in Syria.
While Islamic State exploits supply lines through Syria to Iraq, where
they’ve seized U.S.-made weaponry abandoned by the Iraqi army, Kobani’s
Kurds are encircled on three sides with their backs pressed up against
Turkey’s border. That leaves them largely dependent for resupply on a
country that brands them as terrorists, defining them as a threat equal
to that posed by the Islamist extremists they’re fighting.
- Gaping Portugal Bid-Ask Spread Keeps Investors Wary: Euro Credit. Glance at Portugal’s government bond
yields and you’d think the securities should’ve been lifted to
investment grade months ago. Dig below the surface, and market
conditions tell you it’s a case of buyer beware. The debt
outperformed that of regional peers this month as analysts at Danske
Bank A/S predict the nation’s junk status will be removed by Fitch
Ratings today. Yet with the gap between offers to buy and sell the bonds
15 times bigger than for Germany, Lombard Odier Investment Managers and
Pacific Investment Management Co. are cautious. Even with Portugal’s
yields more attractive than Germany’s, the investors are unsure
about finding enough buyers when prices drop.
- Draghi Clashes With Schaeuble Over Steps for Europe. European
Central Bank President Mario Draghi and German Finance Minister
Wolfgang Schaeuble differed over what further steps to take if the
euro-area economy keeps weakening as the region came under renewed
foreign pressure to revive growth. As the International Monetary
Fund’s annual meeting in Washington began, Draghi pledged anew to loosen
monetary policy more if needed and called on those governments with the
room to ease fiscal policy to do so. By contrast, Schaeuble warned
against U.S.-style quantitative easing and urged continued
budgetary discipline.
- Asian Stocks Extend Selloff on Europe as Oil Extends Drop.
Asian stocks slid, extending a global equity rout amid concern Europe’s
slowdown will hobble the world economy and as Hong Kong’s government
scrapped talks with protesters. The yen held gains as copper fell and
crude oil continued its slump. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index sank 1
percent by 9:48 a.m. in Tokyo, set for its lowest close since May as
Japan’s Topix index tumbled 1.5 percent.
- Copper Leads Metals Lower Amid Signs of European Slowdown. “The
biggest economy in Europe is going down,” said David Lennox, a resource
analyst at Fat Prophets. “When you see the weakness, it reinforces that
pessimism.” Copper for delivery in three months on the LME was down
1 percent at $6,652.75 a metric ton at 10 a.m. in Hong Kong. In New
York, the December contract dropped 0.7 percent to $3.0095 a pound,
while in Shanghai metal for the same month fell 0.9 percent to 47,340
yuan ($7,718) a ton.
- Gold Heads for Biggest Weekly Jump Since June on Slowdown Signs.
Gold is 2.8 percent higher this week, set for the biggest
such advance since the period to June 20, and a fifth day of
gains today would be the longest run since February. The
Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index is poised to halt a seven-week rally
as investors assessed the timing of increases in U.S. interest
rates, which the Fed has pledged to hold near zero for a
“considerable time.”
- VIX Shoots to Eight-Month High in Selloff as Bears Reclaim Edge. Squalls turned into stock market storms this week as concerns about the
global economy and Federal Reserve send day-to-day swings to the widest
in eight months.
Wall Street Journal:
- Cuba Stands at Forefront of Ebola Battle in Africa. Island Nation Outpaces Larger Countries in Sending Medical Staff; Unlikely Partner for U.S. With risks growing that Ebola could flare on foreign shores, the
U.S. is calling for nations to dispatch doctors and nurses to West
Africa, where thousands of lives are on the line. Few have heeded the
call, but one country has responded in strength: Cuba. In the
weeks since U.S. President Barack Obama sent the first of nearly 4,000
troops to West Africa, the struggle to quell Ebola has created odd
bedfellows. Perhaps none is quite so odd as the sight of Cuban doctors
joining forces with the U.S. military to combat Ebola...
- Obama Weighs Options to Close Guantanamo. Any Move to Override Congressional Ban on Bringing Detainees to U.S. Would Spark Fight.
- Turkey Sits Out Battle in Syrian Border City. Ankara Chooses Not to Intervene in Fight Between Islamic State, Kurdish Militia. Turkey’s unwillingness to intervene in the battle over a
predominantly Kurdish Syrian city on its border has earned the country
harsh criticism from Washington, exposing a dangerous rift over how the
two allies want to tackle Islamic State’s rise. After more than
three weeks of fighting for Kobani and its surroundings, the extremist
group edged closer to seizing the city from Syrian Kurdish militia
fighters on Thursday. By nighttime, city officials said the militants
had managed to gain control of about a quarter of...
- The Global Warming Statistical Meltdown. Mounting evidence suggests that basic assumptions about climate change are mistaken: The numbers don’t add up.
Fox News:
- North Korea’s Kim Jong-un’s absence fuels speculation about health, coup. North
Korea's mysterious leader Kim Jong-un has not been seen in public for
34 days, sparking a wide range of speculation -- including that the head
of one of the world's most
secretive countries is ailing or has been removed in a secret coup. Kim, who was last seen in public attending a concert on Sept. 3., had been seen earlier walking with a limp.
MarketWatch.com:
- Ebola fear causes hazmat-suit maker’s biggest one-day jump. Lakeland LAKE, +52.50% surged nearly 53% to close at $17.72 on very heavy volume Thursday. Shares hit an intraday high of
$19.79, a level not seen since July 2004. More than 47 million shares
changed hands on the session, more than four times its previous record
volume high.
Zero Hedge:
Business Insider:
Reuters:
- Fed's Williams: Can't wait too long to raise rates. A
top Federal Reserve official warned on Thursday that the U.S. economy
could overheat if the central bank waits too long to raise interest
rates. John Williams, president of the San Francisco Fed, predicted
that inflation and employment will be back to normal levels by
2016, which he said suggests that rates must start rising
mid-2015.
- Fears grow in United States over Ebola's spread outside West Africa. Fears are growing in
the United States about Ebola with about 200 airline cabin
cleaners walking off the job in New York and some lawmakers
demanding the government ban travelers from the West African
countries hit hardest by the virus. "The nation is frightened, and people are frightened of this
disease," the U.S. cabinet secretary for health, Sylvia Burwell,
said on Thursday, a day after the death in Texas of the first
person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States.
Financial Times:
- Fears of housing crash in China raise global alarm.
Fears of a housing market crash are weighing on forecasts for global
growth. But this time it is China, not the US, which is causing concern
in a sign of the shift under way in the world economy. Ask economists what factors could hamper global growth this
year and the majority will reel off a list that includes a hard landing
for the Chinese economy.
Telegraph:
Xinhua:
- China
Supreme Court Tightens Controls Over Internet. Supreme People's Court
releases document urging courts to order network service providers to
provide personal data of users suspected of rights violations, including
real names, contract info, IP addresses. Information can be used by
investigators, plaintiffs.
Shanghai Securities News:
- Beijing Won't Likely Remove Home Purchase Curbs. Beijing won't
likely remove home purchase restrictions as the city's property market
hasn't cooled down noticeably, citing researchers with the nation's
housing ministry.
Evening Recommendations
Night Trading
- Asian equity indices are -1.25% to -.75% on average.
- Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 116.5 +1.5 basis points.
- Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 69.25 -.25 basis point.
- NASDAQ 100 futures -.34%.
Morning Preview Links
Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate
- (FAST)/.45
- (PGR)/.44
- (INFY)/.52
Economic Releases
8:30 am EST
- The Import Price Index for September is estimated to fall -.7% versus a -.9% decline in August.
Upcoming Splits
Other Potential Market Movers
- The
Fed's Lacker speaking, Fed's George speaking, Fed's Plosser speaking,
Canadian unemployment report and the USDA's WASDE report could also
impact trading today.
BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are lower, weighed down by industrial and commodity
shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open modestly lower
and to maintain losses into the afternoon. The Portfolio is 25% net long heading into the day.
Broad Equity Market Tone:
- Advance/Decline Line: Substantially Lower
- Sector Performance: Every Sector Declining
- Market Leading Stocks: Underperforming
Equity Investor Angst:
- Volatility(VIX) 19.07 +26.08%
- Euro/Yen Carry Return Index 142.72 -.71%
- Emerging Markets Currency Volatility(VXY) 7.98 -1.72%
- S&P 500 Implied Correlation 60.87 +23.27%
- ISE Sentiment Index 65.0 -28.57%
Credit Investor Angst:
- North American Investment Grade CDS Index 70.02 +4.60%
- European Financial Sector CDS Index 66.84 +1.35%
- Western Europe Sovereign Debt CDS Index 25.44 -3.27%
- Asia Pacific Sovereign Debt CDS Index 69.26 -.47%
- Emerging Market CDS Index 263.07 +5.56%
- China Blended Corporate Spread Index 320.69 -.78%
- 2-Year Swap Spread 26.75 +.75 basis point
- TED Spread 22.5 -.25 basis point
- 3-Month EUR/USD Cross-Currency Basis Swap -9.0 unch.
Economic Gauges:
- 3-Month T-Bill Yield .01% unch.
- China Import Iron Ore Spot $77.50/Metric Tonne n/a
- Citi US Economic Surprise Index 19.10 +1.2 points
- Citi Emerging Markets Economic Surprise Index -21.90 +.5 point
- 10-Year TIPS Spread 1.97 +1.0 basis point
Overseas Futures:
- Nikkei Futures: Indicating -175 open in Japan
- DAX Futures: Indicating -100 open in Germany
Portfolio:
- Lower: On losses in my biotech/retail/medical/tech sector longs
- Disclosed Trades: Added to my (IWM)/(QQQ) hedges and to my (EEM) short
- Market Exposure: Moved to 25% Net Long
Style Underperformer:
Sector Underperformers:
- 1) Coal -6.24% 2) Alt Energy -4.30% 3) Oil Service -3.61%
Stocks Falling on Unusual Volume:
- GPS, ARCW, ENDP, CTR, ACWI, DEST, RNG, NLSN, RMD, RCL, AA, BTE, STE, SYT, TCK, LNG, TFX, SOXX, WPX, EMO, BCS, IOSP, APC, BEN, GOLD, SLB, EOG, CMRX, GT, NGL, LNCO, UNT, ITT, R, RCL, GBX, SCHW, NLSN, WMB, RMD, NLS, THRX, CHK, UVV, VNR, DNR, PNK, EMES, LINE, NOG, SEMG, AXLL, TDW, QEP, CIE, BTU, ATLS, HUB/B and TXTR
Stocks With Unusual Put Option Activity:
- 1) ZQK 2) AA 3) KRE 4) XLI 5) DXJ
Stocks With Most Negative News Mentions:
- 1) CG 2) EV 3) TWC 4) CBI 5) SN
Charts:
Style Outperformer:
Sector Outperformers:
- 1) REITs +.65% 2) Software -.02% 3) Foods -.21%
Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume:
- LAKE, AUXL, GTIV, KND, IPXL and RVBD
Stocks With Unusual Call Option Activity:
- 1) HRB 2) AFL 3) GPS 4) GSAT 5) JNUG
Stocks With Most Positive News Mentions:
- 1) PEP 2) AAPL 3) CB 4) WMT 5) ZUMZ
Charts: