Thursday, November 30, 2017

Friday Watch

Evening Headlines
Bloomberg:
  • Korea's Inflation Slips to 1-Year Low While GDP Strengthens. (video) South Korea’s inflation unexpectedly slowed to a one-year low as the government lowered city gas charges and vegetable prices stabilized on higher farm output. Economic growth was slightly stronger than the central bank’s initial estimate and exports expanded close to 10 percent.
  • Asia Stocks Pare Gains as U.S. Equity Futures Drop. (video) Japanese shares gave up an advance that briefly helped the Nikkei 225 Stock Average reclaim a 25-year high reached in November. Shares rose in Australia and fell in Hong Kong. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed past 24,000 after John McCain backed the Senate tax bill, and the S&P 500 Index capped its longest monthly winning streak since 2007 as technology stocks rebounded. Treasuries held a slide, with the 10-year yield breaking above 2.4 percent. The dollar came under pressure after the U.S. Senate suspended votes on the bill until Friday as it emerged a key compromise to help its passage collapsed. The Topix index was down 0.2 percent as of 10:50 a.m. in Tokyo and the Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 0.1 percent after earlier jumping as much as 1.2 percent to touch the highest since 1992. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index advanced 0.4 percent. The Kospi index was down 0.1 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost 0.3 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index was down 0.4 percent.
Wall Street Journal:
MarketWatch.com:
CNBC:
Night Trading 
  • Asian equity indices are -.25% to +.75% on average.
  • Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 73.25 +.5 basis point
  • Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 13.75 unch.
  • Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 73.32 +.02%.
  • S&P 500 futures -.33%.
  • NASDAQ 100 futures -.40%.
Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate

  • (AMWD)/1.22
  • (BIG)/.04
  • (GCO)/1.12
Economic Releases
10:00 am EST
  • ISM Manufacturing for November is estimated to fall to 58.3 versus 58.7 in October. 
  • ISM Prices Paid for November is estimated to fall to 67.0 versus 68.5 in October.
  • Construction Spending for October is estimated to rise +.5% versus a +.3% gain in September.
Afternoon:
  • Wards Total Vehicle Sales for November are estimated to fall to 17.5M versus 18.0M in October.
Upcoming Splits
  • (CGNX) 2-for-1
Other Potential Market Movers
  • The Senate vote on tax reform, Fed's Bullard speaking, Fed's Kaplan speaking, China Manufacturing PMI report and the Eurozone GDP report could also impact trading today.
BOTTOM LINE:  Asian indices are mostly higher, boosted by transport and technology shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open modestly lower and to rally into the afternoon, finishing modestly higher.  The Portfolio is 100% net long heading into the day.

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