Broad Equity Market Tone:
- Advance/Decline Line: Lower
- Sector Performance: Most Sectors Declining
- Market Leading Stocks: Underperforming
Equity Investor Angst:
- Volatility(VIX) 15.67 +2.49%
- Euro/Yen Carry Return Index 134.44 -.16%
- Emerging Markets Currency Volatility(VXY) 10.35 -1.90%
- S&P 500 Implied Correlation 65.86 +.41%
- ISE Sentiment Index 111.0 +50.0%
- Total Put/Call 1.09 +3.81%
Credit Investor Angst:
- North American Investment Grade CDS Index 63.55 -.05%
- America Energy Sector High-Yield CDS Index 1,070.0 +2.18%
- European Financial Sector CDS Index 67.30 +1.64%
- Western Europe Sovereign Debt CDS Index 22.09 -.47%
- Asia Pacific Sovereign Debt CDS Index 59.80 -.33%
- Emerging Market CDS Index 313.66 -2.12%
- iBoxx Offshore RMB China Corporates High Yield Index 114.56 +.18%
- 2-Year Swap Spread 25.50 +.5 basis point
- TED Spread 25.25 +.25 basis point
- 3-Month EUR/USD Cross-Currency Basis Swap -24.25 +.75 basis point
Economic Gauges:
- 3-Month T-Bill Yield .02% unch.
- Yield Curve 133.0 -5.0 basis points
- China Import Iron Ore Spot $49.53/Metric Tonne -3.54%
- Citi US Economic Surprise Index -62.5 -3.9 points
- Citi Eurozone Economic Surprise Index 62.50 +4.8 points
- Citi Emerging Markets Economic Surprise Index 3.3 +3.0 points
- 10-Year TIPS Spread 1.81 +4.0 basis points
Overseas Futures:
- Nikkei Futures: Indicating +126 open in Japan
- DAX Futures: Indicating +44 open in Germany
Portfolio:
- Slightly Lower: On losses in my medical/biotech/tech/retail sector longs and emerging markets shorts
- Market Exposure: 25% Net Long
Bloomberg:
- Iran Nuclear Talks Grind On as Deal Deadline Recedes Into Past. (video) Iran and world powers pressed ahead with
talks for an outline agreement to end the 12-year standoff over
the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, with diplomats saying
major obstacles must be overcome before any announcement. Envoys to the negotiations are “working hard to finalize a
deal, a good deal,” European Union foreign policy chief
Federica Mogherini said on Twitter. U.K. Foreign Secretary
Philip Hammond earlier said the sides had a “broad framework of
understanding,” with some key issues still left to resolve.
- Greece Said to Make Progress on Euro-Area Officials’ Call. Greece and euro-area authorities pledged to
press ahead with efforts to release aid payments after progress
in recent days, according to a Greek Finance Ministry official
with knowledge of a conference call held Wednesday. Two euro-area officials agreed that talks were making
progress, recognizing the advances by Greece while insisting
that more work needs to be done to reach a conclusion of this
part of rescue. All three asked not to be named because the
discussion was private.
- Record Borrowing for Stocks Shows Canada Debt Binge Grows. Canadians like Colpitts are borrowing to invest at the
highest level since at least 2000, racking up more than C$19
billion ($15 billion) on margin in January. That’s helped fuel a
37 percent surge in mutual-fund assets in the past two years and
a 41 percent rise in ETF assets. The figures illustrate Canada’s
rock-bottom interest rates aren’t only fueling house prices and
consumer debt to record highs, they’re enticing people to
leverage in financial markets.
- Return of Goldilocks Has UBS Asking If It Gets Better Than This. Does it get any better than this? That’s the question Larry Hatheway, UBS Group AG’s chief
economist, is asking about financial markets. His answer: Probably not. Now comes the warning about complacency. Hatheway says investors may be overlooking the chance that
the Fed responds to employment growth by raising rates faster
than is now anticipated. That could send the dollar soaring,
undermining emerging markets. The Ukraine conflict, Greece’s
debt woes and an uncertain U.K. election pose threats to Europe. Hatheway advises investors to guard against such trouble
ahead.
- European Stocks Rise With Banks After Best Quarter Since 2009. Banks led European stocks higher after
equities completed the biggest quarterly advance since 2009. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index added 0.3 percent to 398.52 at
the close of trading. It briefly erased almost all its gains
after a report said Greece may seek to delay an April 9 deadline
to repay loans to the International Monetary Fund. A Greek
government official denied the report. The country’s ASE Index
slid 1.3 percent for the worst performance among 18 western-European markets.
European shares earlier reversed a drop of as much as 0.5
percent after a final Markit Economics update showed euro-area
manufacturing grew more than initially estimated.
- Treasuries Rise as March Jobs Pace Fuels Economic Growth Concern. Treasuries rose as a private report showed
the U.S. added fewer jobs than forecast in March, reinforcing
concern about the strength of the economic recovery as the
Federal Reserve moves closer to raising rates. Ten-year note yields dropped for the fourth day as the
report raised questions about the momentum of the labor market,
which has been the driver of the economy’s expansion that began
almost six years ago. Demand for Treasuries was also boosted by
their relative value, as U.S. yields are higher than 19
developed economies including the U.K., Norway and Spain.
- China’s Fuel Demand to Peak Sooner Than Oil Giants Expect. China’s biggest oil refiner is signaling the
nation is headed to its peak in diesel and gasoline consumption
far sooner than most Western energy companies and analysts are
forecasting. If correct, the projections by China Petroleum & Chemical
Corp., or Sinopec, a state-controlled enterprise with public
shareholders in Hong Kong, pose a big challenge to the world’s
largest oil companies. They’re counting on demand from China and
other developing countries to keep their businesses growing as
energy consumption falls in more advanced economies. “Plenty of people are talking about the peak in Chinese
coal, but not many are talking about the peak in Chinese diesel
demand, or Chinese oil generally,” said Mark C. Lewis, an
analyst at Kepler Cheuvreux in Paris who has written on how oil
companies should broaden their activities to produce all forms
of energy. “It is shocking.”
- Iraq Crude Oil Exports Rise 15% in March to Highest in 35 Years. Iraq’s crude shipments in March rose to the
highest level in more than three decades as the government
sought to compensate for a drop in exports earlier this year due
to bad weather, Oil Ministry spokesman Asim Jihad said. OPEC’s second-largest producer shipped 92.4 million barrels
in March, or 2.98 million barrels a day, Jihad said by phone
from Baghdad. Monthly exports gained 15 percent from February,
when foul weather at the country’s southern oil terminals
limited shipments to 2.59 million barrels a day, according to
the Oil Ministry.
- Reckoning Arrives for Cash-Strapped Oil Firms Amid Bank Squeeze. Lenders are preparing to cut the credit
lines to a group of junk-rated shale oil companies by as much as
30 percent in the coming days, dealing another blow as they
struggle with a slump in crude prices, according to people
familiar with the matter. Sabine Oil & Gas Corp. became one of the first companies to
warn investors that it faces a cash shortage from a reduced
credit line, saying Tuesday that it raises “substantial doubt”
about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.
About 10 firms are having trouble finding backup financing, said
the people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named
because the information hasn’t been announced.
- Iron Ore Sinks Below $50 as Worldwide Glut Swells, China Slows. Iron ore slumped below $50 a metric ton on
prospects for a widening global glut as the largest producers
boost supply and Chinese demand growth weakens. Rio Tinto Group,
BHP Billiton Ltd. and Vale SA fell. Ore with 62 percent content at Qingdao, China, retreated
3.5 percent to $49.53 a dry ton on Wednesday, according to Metal
Bulletin Ltd. That’s the lowest level since 2004-2005, based on
data from Metal Bulletin and annual benchmarks compiled by
Clarkson Plc, the world’s largest shipbroker. Prices collapsed last year and extended losses in 2015 as
Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton boosted low-cost output into a
saturated market, betting higher volumes would protect their
market share and cut unit costs while less competitive miners
faced closure. Global iron ore demand will shrink this year for
the first time since 2009, Deutsche Bank AG said in a report on
Tuesday, forecasting that prices may drop below $40 as weaker
currencies and lower energy prices eased producers’ costs. “Every quarter should see more supply than the quarter
before, and that should continue for years,” Ivan Szpakowski, a
Citigroup Inc. analyst in Hong Kong, said in an interview on
Wednesday. “Every $10 is a psychological level but it doesn’t
mean we can’t breach it,” said Szpakowski, who repeated a
forecast on March 23 that the $50 level would be broken.
- Monsanto(MON) Lowers Profit Forecast on Corn Drop, Dollar. Monsanto Co., the world’s largest seed
company, lowered its forecast for fiscal 2015 earnings and said
it will cut spending as farmers plant less corn while a
strengthening U.S. dollar erodes foreign sales. Earnings before one-time items in the 12 months through
August will now be at the low end of its previous projection of
$5.75 to $6 a share, St. Louis-based Monsanto said Wednesday in
a statement. The company also reported second-quarter profit and sales
that trailed analysts’ estimates. The shares fell as much as 2.2
percent in premarket trading in New York.
Wall Street Journal:
CNBC:
ZeroHedge:
Business Insider:
Reuters:
- U.S. auto sales demand begins to thaw in March. U.S. consumer
demand for new vehicles began to thaw in March, especially for luxury
cars and big trucks, but not every carmaker participated in the uptick.
With most
manufacturers reporting by midday on Wednesday, sales were up 0.7
percent from a year ago, with the industry on pace to sell 1,548,000
vehicles. Analysts polled by Reuters had estimated that sales in March,
which had one fewer selling day than the year-ago month, would be
slightly below last year's 1,537,288.
MNI:
- Fed's Mester Says June-Sept. Appropriate for Liftoff. 1Q slowdown
in U.S. economy should prove to be "transitory," shouldn't delay Fed's
decision to lift rates, Cleveland Fed Pres. Loretta Mester said in an
interview with MNI on Tuesday from Stone Mountain, Ga. Liftoff "would be
appropriate" sometime in June-Sept, she said. FOMC could consider rate
increases at "all meetings" this year. Doesn't see threat to financial
stability from long period of low rates.
Telegraph:
Style Underperformer:
Sector Underperformers:
- 1) Hospitals -2.61% 2) Airlines -2.12% 3) Biotech -1.86%
Stocks Falling on Unusual Volume:
- CHRS,
CTSO, UTIW, MSB, OCUL, EGLT, MYL, MVO, MAC, WLDN, SNX, UHS, BURL, DIOD,
NUVA, SSP, CRS, OVAS, OXM, ONNN, CLDN, IBB, PSG, LEA, DYN, CPN, AAP,
RPTP, NRG, ONCE and CLDN
Stocks With Unusual Put Option Activity:
- 1) FFIV 2) EXC 3) PRU 4) AMGN 5) MNST
Stocks With Most Negative News Mentions:
- 1) UAL 2) MCD 3) KORS 4) UTIW 5) WMT
Charts:
Style Outperformer:
Sector Outperformers:
- 1) Gold & Silver +2.89% 2) Energy +.86% 3) Oil Service +.57%
Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume:
- DYAX, TRIL, SHLD, SRPT, RESI, ESPR and LL
Stocks With Unusual Call Option Activity:
- 1) NRG 2) FOXA 3) PPC 4) SRPT 5) CAG
Stocks With Most Positive News Mentions:
- 1) AMT 2) DYAX 3) SAIC 4) JCP 5) MOV
Charts:
Evening Headlines
Bloomberg:
- Iran Told to Make Deal by Dawn With Talks Set to Miss Deadline. World powers warned Iran that they’re ready
to quit nuclear talks on Wednesday even if there’s no agreement,
according to a participant, as the approach of a deadline led to
brinkmanship on both sides. While negotiators have agreed to continue past midnight,
breaking with the official timetable, the talks won’t be
extended beyond April 1, said a diplomat from one of the six
countries negotiating with Iran, speaking on condition of not
being identified in line with protocol. The European foreign
ministers intend to leave the Swiss city of Lausanne on
Wednesday morning regardless of the outcome, the diplomat said.
- How Could the Bond Market React to a Greek Exit? (video)
- China’s Big Stock Market Rally Is Being Fueled by High-School Dropouts. Everyone is a trader now. There’s a story that Joseph Kennedy sold his stocks on the cusp of
the Great Crash of 1929 after a shoe shine boy shared trading tips with
him. If even the shoe polisher is buying stocks, he reasoned, the market
must be riding for a fall. New data from the China Household Finance Survey, a large-scale
survey of household income and assets headed by Professor Li Gan of
Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, provides fresh
insights into who has been driving the recent rally in China’s markets.
It is not reassuring. Gan’s survey, which was conducted at the end of 2014 and covers some
4,000 households across the country, finds that the biggest new
investors in China’s equity markets have below a high school education
and relatively low levels of asset ownership.
- China Enters Stock Frenzy as Rookie Traders Open Record Accounts. To get a sense of the frenzy in China’s
world-beating equity market, consider this: In a two-week span
last month, the rally lured 2.8 million rookie stock pickers,
almost the equivalent of Chicago’s entire population. The number of new equity accounts surged to a record during
the two weeks ended March 27, five times the average of the past
year, data from China Securities Depository and Clearing Co.
showed on Tuesday. About 4 million were opened in March, enough
for every person in Los Angeles. More than two-thirds of new
investors have never attended or graduated from high school,
according to a survey by China’s Southwestern University of
Finance and Economics. Signs of inexperienced investors’ growing influence on the
$6.5 trillion market have already shown up in the outperformance
of China’s equivalent of penny stocks and a jump in share-price
volatility to the highest level in five years. While fresh
capital may feed market momentum as the government steps up
efforts to support economic growth, foreign money managers have
been selling shares on concern the gains are overdone.
- Asian Stocks Sink With U.S. Futures After Quarterly Gains. Asian stocks slid with U.S. index futures,
and the dollar retreated against most peers. Oil extended losses
as negotiators near an accord that could see extra Iranian crude
adding to a global glut. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index dropped a fifth day, losing 0.2
percent by 10:58 a.m. in Tokyo as Standard & Poor’s 500 Index
futures tumbled 0.8 percent after the U.S. gauge capped its
longest run of quarterly gains since 1998. The Bloomberg Dollar
Spot Index weakened 0.2 percent as the yen and euro climbed 0.4
percent. Oil in New York fell after a third straight quarterly
decline. Gold rose for the first time in four days.
- Slump in S&P 500 Futures Leaves Investors Searching for Triggers. U.S. equity-index futures lurched lower on
elevated volume as investors struggled to pinpoint a trigger for
the selling. E-mini futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index expiring
in June slumped as much as 1.3 percent, before paring losses to
0.8 percent as of 12:03 p.m. in Tokyo. Selling increased after
the contract slid below its average price over the past 100
days, with volume more than three times higher than the five-day
average for this time of the day. Futures on the Dow Jones
Industrial Average lost 0.8 percent.
- The Saudis Are Losing Their Lock on Asian Oil Sales. Ships carrying oil from Mexico docked in
South Korea this year for the first time in more than two
decades as the global fight for market share intensifies. Latin American producers are providing increasing amounts
of heavy crude to bargain-hungry Asian refiners in a challenge
to Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest exporter and the region’s
dominant supplier.
- Iron Ore’s 10-Year Low Not Slowing China Production Push. To understand why iron ore prices have
dropped to a 10-year low, look no further than a $10 billion
mine being developed by China’s state-owned Citic Ltd. on
Australia’s remote northwest coast. The Sino Iron project, the world’s costliest mine, has been
called a “disaster” by critics. It began shipping iron ore in
December 2013, about four years later than planned. Now, even
with prices at their lowest level in 10 years, Citic is adding
four production lines at the project, a plan that could pump
millions of tons of ore into an already saturated market.
Wall Street Journal:
- Iran Nuclear Talks Miss Deadline. U.S. says enough progress made to merit staying until Wednesday. Nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers crashed through
another deadline on Tuesday, casting doubt about whether the two sides
can reach a final deal to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons
in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions. There
were some signs of progress in the early morning hours of Wednesday,
with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov saying the sides reached
agreement in principle on a framework outlining elements of a final
nuclear deal...
- Wal-Mart Ratchets Up Pressure on Suppliers to Cut Prices. Retailer urges them to pull back on joint-marketing efforts to bring cost down. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is increasing the pressure on suppliers to cut the
cost of their products, in an effort to regain the mantle of low-price
leader and turn around its sluggish U.S. sales.
- Hillary Obstructs Congress. She erased emails after the Benghazi probe wanted to see them. If the House panel investigating Benghazi really wants to get a look at
Hillary Clinton’s emails, perhaps it should subpoena the Chinese
military. Beijing—which may have hacked the private server she used to
send official email as Secretary of State—is likely to be more
cooperative than are Mrs. Clinton and her stonewall specialists now
reprising their roles from the 1990s.
Fox News:
- Think tank tallies 64 terror plots targeting American homeland since 9/11. The frightening plot to kill 150 National Guard members that unraveled
last week when FBI agents nabbed two Chicago-area cousins was the 64th
case since 9/11 of Islamist terrorists plotting to strike on American
soil, according to a new report that warns the radicalizing influence of
ISIS must be dealt with in the U.S. and abroad.
MarketWatch.com:
CNBC:
Zero Hedge:
Business Insider:
Evening Recommendations
Night Trading
- Asian equity indices are -.75% to +.25% on average.
- Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 110.75 +.25 basis point.
- Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 60.0 -.5 basis point.
- NASDAQ 100 futures -.98%.
Morning Preview Links
Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate
- (AYI)/1.06
- (MON)/2.94
- (PRGS)/.24
- (CUB)/.55
- (SIGM)/.01
Economic Releases
8:15 am EST
- The ADP Employment Change for March is estimated to rise to 225K versus 212K in February.
9:45 am EST
- Final Markit US Manufacturing PMI for March is estimated at 55.3 versus a prior estimate of 55.3.
10:00 am EST
- Construction Spending for February is estimated to fall -.1% versus a -1.1% decline in January.
- ISM Manufacturing for March is estimated to fall to 52.5 versus 52.9 in February.
- ISM Prices Paid for March is estimated to rise to 38.0 versus 35.0 in February.
10:30 am EST
- Bloomberg
consensus estimates call for a weekly crude oil inventory build of
+4,181,250 barrels versus a +8,170,000 barrel gain the prior week.
Gasoline supplies are estimated to fall by -862,500 barrels versus a
-2,014,000 barrel decline the prior week. Distillate inventories are
estimated to fall by -12,500 barrels versus a -34,000 barrel decline the
prior week. Finally, refinery utilization is estimated to rise by +.75%
versus a +.9% gain the prior week.
Afternoon:
- Wards Total Vehicle Sales for March are estimated to rise to 16.9M versus 16.16M in February.
Upcoming Splits
Other Potential Market Movers
- The
Fed's Williams speaking, Eurozone PMI, China Manufacturing PMI, weekly
MBA mortgage applications report and the (WMT) strategic update could
also impact trading today.
BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly lower, weighed down by technology and commodity shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open lower and to maintain losses into the afternoon. The Portfolio is 25% net long heading into the day.