The knives are out early this morning among the brokers, where UBS – hardly the embodiment of banking and sales and trading health these days – just downgraded Goldman Sachs to Neutral, cutting its price target from $250 to $235, on the recent disappointing results from the company’s FICC group. UBS said it believes the market is pricing in an “inflection” in Goldman’s trading revenue despite the recent weakness suggesting a recovery is needed to justify 2018 consensus estimates. The bank concedes that “recent weak results could rebound but believe a recovery in trading revenues would need to be subst...
The US Dollar Index is trading close to a 13-month through as political turmoil in the US had led to diminished expectations that Donald Trump will be able to push through the various agendas that he had campaigned for in his bid to become the US President. Friday’s resignation of Sean Spicer, the spokesman for the White House, is only the latest upheaval in a string of unrest. The case against the Trump administration, which is mired down in an investigation of possible collusion by the Russian government, seems to be drawing strength. That situation is also weighing on the US Dollar in the short term. As reported at 11:07 am (BST) in Lond...
Stanley Black & Decker Inc. (SWK – Free Report) is a leading global manufacturer of branded tools and engineered solutions for professional, industrial and consumer applications. Also, the company provides integrated access and security solutions to commercial, institutional and residential customers. This New Britain, CT-based company has a $22.5 billion market capitalization. However, Stanley Black & Decker’s exposure to headwinds including uncertain global economic conditions, unfavorable foreign currency movements, commodity inflation, industry rivalry and high debt levels remain major causes of concern. Investors are e...
At WisdomTree, we track a very interesting weekly statistic reported by Japan’s Ministry of Finance (MOF)—the net flows from foreign investors into Japan’s equity market.1 As of June 16, 2017, approximately $2.7 billion had gone INTO Japan’s equities for the 2017 year-to-date period. That compares to $155 billion in 2013, $22.5 billion in 2014, $3.5 billion in 2015 and nearly $40 billion OUT in 2016.2 In short, the year-to-date data indicated a reversal from a very large outflow year (2016), but still negligible interest in Japanese stocks from foreign investors. The Disconnect: Investor Activity vs. Central Bank Policy We, like mos...
Hasbro 2Q 2017 earnings and Halliburton 2Q 2017 earnings were released before opening bell this morning. Hasbro posted net earnings of 53 cents per share on $972.5 million in sales. Wall Street had been looking for 45 cents per share and $974.2 million in revenue. In last year’s second quarter, the toymaker reported 41 cents per share in adjusted earnings on $878.9 million in revenue. Halliburton reported adjusted earnings of 23 cents per share on $4.96 billion in revenue, compared the consensus estimates of 18 cents per share and $4.86 billion in revenue. In last year’s second quarter, the firm reported $3.84 billion in revenue. This yea...
Consumer price inflation is expected to have reached +2.2% in the second quarter of 2017, up from a prior reading of +2.1%, according to market estimates, and at the lower end of the central bank’s +2-3% target range (y/y). The RBA’s target is defined as a medium-term average to allow for any unseen circumstances and for lags in the effects of monetary policy. Inflation is expected to be pushed higher by rising commodity prices boosting domestic income and expenditure. With inflation levels still low – Q4’16 figures (just two data periods ago) were the lowest in 19 years – interest rate hikes are still a way off, although some ...
In this week’s market update, we take a look at the latest trends of the US Dollar Index, which tumbled below 95 and closed the week below that support for the first time this year; we explain the reasons behind such move, speculating the possible scenarios ahead. As well, we will focus on the ECB decision, which left the current policy unchanged, with few hints of a possible move in September, sending the European equities lower, while the Euro keeps on rising. After that, we will preview the upcoming economic releases for this week and speculate the results and the way they might impact the market. Video length: 00:14:03...
Last week was a mixed affair for the world’s major markets. In Europe over the course of the week, the FTSE was up on last week’s close by 1% at 7452.9; the Dax ended at 12240, down by 3.1% on last week’s close; the CAC was down by 2.3% to end the session at 5117.7. The Dow ended the week down by 0.27% to close at 21580. The Nasdaq composite index was up by 1.2% over the course of the week at 6387.8. The Nikkei 225 ended the week’s trading down, just, by 0.09% to end the session at 20100. Currency markets review On the currency markets last week the Euro enjoyed the best of the trading. The Dollar was stronger against Sterling last we...
Ok, so the headlines are coming in from the OPEC, non-OPEC monitoring committee meeting in St. Petersburg, where ministers are convening to chat about market conditions. And although not a whole lot is expected, crude is of course prone to sharp moves on headlines. Sure enough, this (out moments ago) seems to be having an impact: AL-FALIH: SEES SAUDI DEEP CUT IN AUGUST WTI and Brent both immediately leapt to day-highs on high volume: This of course comes after a nasty decline on Friday tied to the Petro-Logistics report which frankly, seems to have punched above its weight in terms of the impact it had, perhaps signaling (again) how vulnera...
For a second week in a row, all the broad categories of global markets posted gains. Led by a sharp advance in foreign government bonds in developed markets, the major asset classes dispensed a clean sweep of price increases, based on a set of exchange-traded products. The top performer for the five trading days through July 21: SPDR Bloomberg Barclays International Treasury Bond (BWX), which climbed 1.8%. The advance lifted the ETF to a nine-month high. A key driver of BWX’s recent rally is the ongoing slide in the US dollar. The US Dollar Index slumped to its lowest close in more than a year on Friday. “A weaker dollar seems to be the...