Monday, June 22, 2015

Bear Radar

Style Underperformer:
  • Mid-Cap Value +.27%
Sector Underperformers:
  • 1) Papers -1.71% 2) Gold & Silver -1.37% 3) Gaming -1.21%
Stocks Falling on Unusual Volume:
  • AMBA, ETE, WPZ, PLCM, HUM, SYNA, KMX, PKG, SEDG, KS, CAPL, IP, RKT, IPCM, FNSR, TROV, MWV, HASI, FNHC, USPH, GLP, TCX, PRSC, FELE, FEYE and PBPB
Stocks With Unusual Put Option Activity:
  • 1) OIL 2) F 3) APC 4) TXN 5) CF
Stocks With Most Negative News Mentions:
  • 1) AA 2) FEYE 3) PCLN 4) SYNA 5) SYMC
Charts:

Bull Radar

Style Outperformer:
  • Large-Cap Growth +.55%
Sector Outperformers:
  • 1) HMOs +3.28% 2) Airlines +1.84% 3) Drugs +1.28%
Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume:
  • WMB, EPZM, E, SRNE, ORAN, MDXG, POZN, FGEN, HQY, CI, OKE and AET
Stocks With Unusual Call Option Activity:
  • 1) AOL 2) XOMA 3) RHT 4) SGMS 5) ETP
Stocks With Most Positive News Mentions:
  • 1) ZUMZ 2) EPZM 3) CCL 4) CONE 5) KBH
Charts:

Morning Market Internals

NYSE Composite Index:

Monday Watch

Today's Headlines 
Bloomberg: 
  • Tsipras Said to Risk Miscalculating Merkel on Greek Aid. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is testing Angela Merkel’s patience, risking the best hope for keeping his country in the euro area. While the German chancellor says she wants to keep the euro intact, Tsipras is probably overestimating her willingness to compromise at an emergency summit called to break the deadlock on Greek aid, according to a person familiar with the government’s thinking. Her stance is backed by a chancellery estimate that the financial impact on Germany of a Greek default would be limited to 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) a year, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing government deliberations. As Merkel hardens her tone, she’ll take those calculations into the special summit with Tsipras and 17 other euro-area leaders in Brussels on Monday. 
  • Euro Risk Concealed as Greece Lurches Toward Currency Union Exit. To look at the euro right now, you’d never guess its very existence is being threatened. As Greece edges closer to crashing out of the monetary union, Europe’s single currency is headed for only its second monthly gain versus the dollar in a year. Strategists give a variety of reasons for its resilience, from money managers canceling euro hedges as they dump bonds and stocks to optimism Greece and its creditors will come to an 11th-hour bailout deal, possibly after an emergency summit in Brussels on Monday.
  • U.S.’s Carter Calls Putin ‘Malign Influence’ in Eastern Europe. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter termed Russian President Vladimir Putin a “malign influence” in Eastern Europe and said the Russian leader’s vow to expand Moscow’s cache of nuclear missiles was “loose rhetoric.” Amid continuing tensions over the conflict in Ukraine, the U.S. will “keep the door open” for Russia to choose better relations, Carter said, something he indicated was a long shot in remarks to reporters aboard his Pentagon jet on Sunday. “Russia might not change under Vladimir Putin or even thereafter,” Carter said.  
  • Former SAC Manager’s Hedge Fund Bets Against Euro on Greek Woes. Yip Ka-hay, a former SAC Capital Advisors manager now running his own macro hedge fund, is shorting the euro against the Japanese currency. The euro may slide below $1.08 in the next few months -- from above $1.13 now -- amid a potential Greek default and exit from the European currency, he said. Even with a last-minute deal, the currency shared by 19 nations could weaken as policy makers shift their attention back to boosting growth and inflation in Europe through government easing, he added.
  • China Margin Debt Shrinks First Time in a Month Amid Stock Rout. Chinese stock investors reduced leveraged positions in Shanghai for the first time in a month as the benchmark equity index plunged. The outstanding amount of margin debt on the Shanghai Stock Exchange fell to 1.479 trillion yuan ($238 billion) on Friday from a record 1.483 trillion yuan the previous day, the first decline since May 22. Shares sank 6.4 percent Friday to cap their worst week since the global financial crisis in 2008.
  • Biggest Health Insurers to Get Even Bigger Under Obamacare. America’s biggest health insurers are about to get even bigger, driven into a wave of consolidation by Obamacare’s new regulations and markets. Anthem’s disclosure Saturday that it’s offered about $47 billion for Cigna Corp. is the first public confirmation the deal-making is in full swing. Cigna rejected the offer on Sunday, despite Anthem’s attempt to pressure Cigna’s board by taking the offer public. Anthem, Aetna Inc. and UnitedHealth Group Inc. all are poised to emerge as buyers or sellers when the dust settles. Driving the consolidation is the 2010 health law that put tougher rules on the industry, demanding more covered services, better care and a ceiling on profits. It funded coverage for the uninsured, and companies are racing to capture the more than 20 million customers who will buy coverage through Obamacare’s markets.
Wall Street Journal: 
MarketWatch.com:
CNBC:
Reuters:
  • Williams Co(WMB) rejects $48 bln unsolicited offer. Natural gas pipeline company Williams Companies Inc said on Sunday it is exploring strategic options after it received an unsolicited takeover proposal for $64 per share or $48 billion. Williams did not name the party who made the offer but it said its board determined the proposal "significantly undervalues" the company. Energy Transfer Equity LP, a portfolio company that owns energy assets, is the bidder referred to in Williams' announcement on Sunday, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Financial Times:
Telegraph:
FAS:
  • Greek Budget Shortage May Be EU2b to EU3.6b at End of June. Greece creditors estimate country's budget gap of EU2b to EU3.6b this month, citing creditors' internal calculations. Shortage won't allow Greek government to repay IMF; it has to cut pensions, salaries as expense amount to EU2.2b by end of June.
MDR Television: 
  • Schaeuble Says Hard Line on Greece Best for Europe. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said he is perceived in Greece as "stubborn" but his hard line isn't aimed at harming the country, and is in the best interests of Europe, citing a speech by Schaeuble after receiving the Point-Alpha Prize. Need to stick to reforms, speak up against softening of rules.
Weekend Recommendations
  • None of note
Night Trading
  • Asian indices are unch. to +.75% on average.
  • Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 109.0 -2.0 basis points.
  • Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 61.25 unch.
  • S&P 500 futures +.44%.
  • NASDAQ 100 futures +.38%.

Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate 
  • (SONC)/.36
Economic Releases
8:30 am EST
  • The Chicago Fed National Activity Index for May is estimated at .16 versus -.15 in April.
10:00 am EST
  • Existing Home Sales for May are estimated to rise to 5.28M versus 5.04M in April.
Upcoming Splits
  • None of note
Other Potential Market Movers
  • The Eurozone Summit, HSBC China Manufacturing PMI, Australia Housing Price Index, Jefferies Consumer conference, (SNE) shareholders meeting and the (GCI) investor meeting could also impact trading today.
BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly higher, boosted by industrial 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.

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Weekly Outlook

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 modestly lower on Greek debt deal concerns, Fed rate hike worries, global growth fears, European/Emerging Markets/US High-Yield debt angst, China bubble concerns and earnings worries. My intermediate-term trading indicators are giving neutral signals and the Portfolio is 50% net long heading into the week.

Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:       
  • Weekend of Fear in Greece as Banks, People Live Day to Day. Dorothea Lambros stood outside an HSBC branch in central Athens on Friday afternoon, an envelope stuffed with cash in one hand and a 38,000 euro ($43,000) cashier’s check in the other. She was a few minutes too late to make her deposit at the London-based bank. She was too scared to take her life-savings back to her Greek bank. She worried it wouldn’t survive the weekend. “I don’t know what happens on Monday,” said Lambros, a 58-year-old government employee. Nobody does. Every shifting deadline, every last-gasp effort has built up to this: a nation that went to sleep on Friday not knowing what Monday will bring. A deal, or more brinkmanship. Shuttered banks and empty cash machines, or a few more days of euros in their pockets and drachmas in their past - - and maybe their future.
  • Greece’s Tsipras to Assemble Cabinet on Eve of Bailout Talks. Greece’s cabinet will huddle with the prime minister on Sunday to map out its strategy for a meeting the next day that will decide the nation’s future in Europe’s currency bloc. On the agenda at the meeting in Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ residence is whether to compromise on election promises in order to avoid a default on its debt. Months of back and forth with creditors have left banks living day-to-day on European Central Bank funding. Panicked depositors have withdrawn 30 billion euros ($34 billion) since December and 4 billion euros the past week alone. Without a deal at an European Union leaders summit on Monday, Greece faces the specter of capital controls and what U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew said was a “terrible” economic decline.
  • EU, Greece Pursue Quiet Diplomacy to Stave Off Default. (video) European Union leaders and Greece’s creditors head into a flurry of behind-the-scenes diplomacy ahead of high-level meetings to unlock aid for the nation flirting with default. With markets closed, the weekend gives negotiators trying to avert a Greek exit from the euro some room to lay out a road map for what will be a high-stakes week with an emergency summit of EU chiefs on Monday. The clock is running down on a June 30 deadline to make payments and work out a new deal amid disagreements on pensions, sales tax and a deficit target.
Wall Street Journal: 
ZeroHedge:
Financial Times:
  • Greek banks: Athens’ Achilles heel. Until this week, the big suspense surrounding Greece was whether Athens would be able to meet a €1.6bn debt repayment to the International Monetary Fund due at the end of June or go bankrupt. But the fear of default is rapidly being overtaken by a separate — and possibly more dangerous — ticking time bomb: the solvency of Greece’s banks.
Telegraph: