Demonstrators disperse as tear gas is fired by police during a protest near central... Read More
Futures (SPX) on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index sank 1 percent at 9 a.m. in New York. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index lost 0.9 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Sang Index erased its gain for the year. The yield on 10-year Treasury notes lost five basis points to 2.48 percent. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index added 0.1 percent and New Zealand’s dollar weakened as the central bank announced its biggest currency sales since 2007. Nickel tumbled 2.4 percent, poised to enter a bear market.
Pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong pledged to
continue demonstrations unless the city’s top official steps down, as violent clashes paralyzed the city center. U.S. consumer spending rose in August with pending home sales data scheduled for later today while euro-area consumer confidence diminished in September.
“There’s this sense of foreboding in the stock markets that we’re almost deserving of at least a correction,” Drew Wilson, an investment analyst with Fenimore Asset Management in Cobleskill, New York, said in a phone interview. “Nobody wants to be in the way of that. We’ve got a new geopolitical issue popping up. Add that to escalation in the middle east and escalation in the Russian theater and you just have more and more trepidation.”
Riot police hold up shields in front of demonstrators during a protest near central... Read More
The dollar rose 0.1 percent today to 109.40 yen and touched 109.75, its highest level since August 2008. It added 0.5 percent to 87.23 cents against its Australian counterpart, touching the strongest level since January.
Home Sales
The Fed mustn’t “fall behind the curve” as it weighs when to start raising interest rates, Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher said in a Fox News interview, citing strengthening U.S. growth and building wage-price pressures.U.S. consumer spending climbed 0.5 percent last month after little change in July, while gains in personal income accelerated to 0.3 percent, according to today’s Commerce Department data.
A report from the National Association of Realtors at 10 a.m. Washington time may show a pending home-sales index slipped 0.5 percent in August following a 3.3 percent gain in the previous month.
An index of executive and consumer sentiment in the euro area slipped to 99.9 in September from 100.6 a month earlier, the European Commission in Brussels said today. That’s the lowest since November and in line with the median of 25 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey.
Goldilocks Level
New Zealand’s dollar plunged to as low as 77.09 U.S. cents, the least since Aug. 5 last year, after the central bank said it sold a net NZ$521 million in August, the most since July 2007. Prime Minister John Key said the so-called Goldilocks level for the nation’s currency is around 65 U.S. cents, Interest.co reported, citing comments to reporters.The Treasury 10-year note yield fell three basis points to 2.50 percent and the rate on similar-maturity gilts dropped four basis points to 2.43 percent.
Greece’s government bonds fell before a meeting with its international creditors tomorrow. Yields on the nation’s 10-year bonds climbed 33 basis points to 6.49 percent. The rate rose the most since May last week on concern a government proposal to become self-financing would put its budget controls at risk.
Spanish and Italian bonds dropped after Catalonian President Artur Mas and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy clashed over whether the region can keep planning a Nov. 9 referendum on separation. Spain’s 10-year yield rose five basis points to 2.25 percent and Italy’s increased five basis points to 2.44 percent. Turkey’s yield rose to above 10 percent for the first time since April.
DreamWorks, Apple
Futures on the S&P 500 expiring in December dropped after the index sank the most in almost two months last week.DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. jumped 25 percent in early New York trading after people familiar with the matter said it is weighing a sale to Softbank Corp. Athlon Energy Inc. surged 25 percent after Encana Corp. agreed to buy it.
Apple Inc. declined 1.2 percent in early New York trading after falling for two straight weeks. Civeo Corp. plunged 30 percent after saying it won’t convert to a real estate investment trust.
HSBC and Standard Chartered Plc slid more than 1 percent each as they shuttered some Hong Kong branches. Commerzbank AG fell 4.3 percent after a person familiar with the matter said the German lender faces a U.S. inquiry into whether it broke anti-money-laundering laws. RWE AG dropped 3.2 percent after Germany’s largest power producer said a plan to sell its oil and gas unit has been delayed.
Balfour Beatty
Balfour Beatty Plc sank 19 percent after Britain’s biggest builder signaled the outlook for construction earnings has further deteriorated and said its chairman and interim chief executive officer will leave.UBS AG (UBSN) climbed 0.7 percent after Switzerland’s largest bank indicated profit for July and August already exceeds analyst estimates for the full third quarter.
The MSCI AC Asia Pacific Index (MXAP) slid 0.7 percent today after a third weekly decline.
The MSCI Emerging Markets Index fell 1 percent to 1,014.13. The gauge has lost 3.5 percent this quarter, set for the steepest slump since the period ended June 2013.
PetroChina Co. and Bank of China Ltd. sank more than 1.4 percent as the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index (HSCEI) fell to a two-month low. Thousands of pro-democracy protesters remained near government offices in the Admiralty district after weekend clashes with police. The Hong Kong dollar weakened the most since 2011.
China plans to start yuan-euro direct trading tomorrow to lower exchange-rate costs and boost the currencies’ use in bilateral trade and investment, according to a statement posted on the People’s Bank of China’s website.
Indonesia’s rupiah slumped to a seven-month low versus the dollar as overseas investors pulled $119 million from the nation’s shares on Sept. 26.
Weaker Ruble
Russia’s ruble weakened 1.1 percent to 44.3070 versus the central bank’s target basket of dollars and euros, 0.4 percent away from the level of 44.40 at which policy makers said they would begin market interventions.Nickel dropped to $16,570 a metric ton. A close at that price would be a 21 percent drop since May 13, marking the metal’s entry into a bear market.
West Texas Intermediate oil dropped 0.4 percent to $93.19 a barrel and copper slipped 0.2 percent to $6,703 a ton, heading for a monthly decline of 4.2 percent, the biggest retreat since March.
The extra yield investors demand to hold high-yield bonds rather than investment grade securities in euros rose to the highest in a year. The average spread widened to 2.83 percent from 2.47 percent last month, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch Index data.
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