US & World Daily Markets Financial Briefing 13-12-2010

Click Here

Stocks Look For Modestly Higher Open To Start Week

Stocks futures point to modest gains on Monday morning, as the markets are focusing on some deal making news amid a light day on the economic front. The major index futures are all in positive territory, with the Dow futures up by 37 points.

In corporate news, General Electric Co. (GE) revealed its plan for a cash bid for UK-based oil and gas services group Wellstream Holdings Plc at $1.3 billion. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2011.

Canadian oil and gas exploration company Lone Pine Resources Inc, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Forest Oil Corp. (FST), revealed in a regulatory filing that it intends to launch an up to $375 million initial public offering of its shares of common stock. Lone Pine plans to apply for listing its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "LPR."

French drug manufacturer Sanofi-Aventis SA (SNY) said that it is extending its cash offer worth $18.5 billion for Genzyme Corp. (GENZ). The tender is now scheduled to expire in late January, 2011.

Stocks gained momentum over the course of the trading day on Friday and were able to end with solid gains amid a week mired by a series of lackluster sessions. The day's buying interest came after the markets were presented with one of the year's best readings on consumer sentiment and a narrower trade deficit number that raised GDP expectations.

The Dow gained 40 points to close at 11,410, the Nasdaq advanced by 21 points or to 2,638 and the S&P 500 rose by 7 points to 1,240.

Despite a series of choppy trading sessions this week, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq saw weekly gains of 1.3 percent and 1.8 percent, respectively, while the Dow inched up by 0.2 percent.

With the gains, the Nasdaq closed at a nearly three-year high, while the S&P ended the day at its best closing level in well over two years. The Dow set a monthly closing high.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region ended moderately higher on Monday. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 Index gained 0.8 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index advanced by 0.7 percent.

The major European markets are up by sizable margins. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the French CAC 40 Index are both up by 1 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively, while the German DAX Index is up by 0.4 percent.

In commodities trading, the price of oil is up by $1.53 at $89.32 a barrel, while the price of gold is up by $7.70 at $1,392.60 an ounce.

Among the currencies, the U.S. dollar is down to $1.3279 against the euro while it has risen to $1.5742 against the pound. Versus the yen, the buck is flat at 83.97 yen.

Click Here to learn more

TSX May Open Higher On Firm Commodities

Toronto stocks  are poised for a higher open Monday, commodities prices rose after China refrained from hiking its key rates despite high inflation. Notably, the price of copper advanced to an all-time high, which could trigger buying in base-metals stocks.

Cues from the global equity markets were also encouraging with most Asian markets ending as gainers, while European stocks were moving higher in morning deals.

U.S. stock futures were pointing to a higher open.

On Friday, the S&P/TSX Composite Index added 72.53 points or 0.55% to 13,239.47.

The price of crude oil moved up Monday morning as fears over a rate hike by China fizzled out. Over the weekend, China said its inflation rose to a 28-month of 5.1% year-on year in November, surpassing analysts' forecast for a 4.7% year-on-year. Despite higher CPI, the Peoples Bank of China refrained from hiking its key lending rates. Crude for January was up $1.51 to $89.30 a barrel.

The price of gold moved back near $1,400 amid a mixed U.S. dollar. Gold for February gained $12.00 to $1,396.90 an ounce.

The Canadian government is in talks with banks to consider ways to curb consumer debt and hike down payments on home mortgages, the Globe and Mail reported.

In corporate news from Canada, zinc and copper mining company HudBay Minerals said it would invest about $290 million in capital expenditure and $59 million in exploration in 2011.

Commercial real estate company Brookfield Properties said it has sold an office building in Washington, DC to the World Bank for $216 million.

Restaurants operator Priszm Income Fund said it would sell its 232 restaurants in Ontario and British Columbia for $46.4 million.

Real estate leasing company Gendis Inc. reported a lower third quarter net income of C$0.37 million or C$0.03 per share, compared to C$0.55 million or C$0.04 per share in last year.

Precious metals miner Capital Gold posted a higher first quarter profit helped by 62% increase in revenues. Net income slightly advanced to $2.95 million or $0.05 per share from $2.93 million or $0.06 per share in the year-ago period.

High-precision measuring instruments maker Roctest Ltd. announced the closure of its acquisition by privately-held Nova Metrix LLC for C$23.48 million in cash.

Transportation holding company Mullen Group said it acquired an additional 794,000 shares of the Logan International Inc. for $5.25 per share bringing its and its insiders total holdings in the issuer to 4.89 million shares, representing about 14.7% of the total issued and outstanding shares of the issuer.

Fashion apparel retailer Le Château Inc. reported a lower third-quarter net income of $2.7 million or $0.11 per share, compared with $5.6 million or $0.23 per share in the year ago period. The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.175 per share.

Bio pharmaceutical company specializing in the field of cancer therapy Helix BioPharma reported a wider first quarter loss of $3.6 million or $0.06 per share, compared to a loss of $3.5 million or $0.06 per share for the year-ago quarter.

Material technology company Cymat Technologies reported second quarter net loss of C$1.5 million or C$0.01 per share compared to a loss of C$1.3 million or C$0.02 per share reported a year ago.

In economic news, Statistics Canada said industries operated at 78.1% of their production capacity in the third quarter, up from 76.9% in the prior quarter. Economists expected the rate to fall to 76.5%. Manufacturing capacity utilization, which has been trending higher since mid-2009, climbed to 81.2% from 78.7%.

DO YOU OWN THE RIGHT STOCKS?

Analyze Your Stocks FREE! – Click Here

M&A deals lift bourses

European stock markets are being buoyed by M&A activity despite the worries of the eurozone.

The CAC is up 38 at 3,895. The Dax in Frankfurt has added 31 at 7,037 while the IBEX in Madrid has added 78 at 10,200.

The chances of the euro breaking apart or disintegrating completely have been put at "one-in-five" by UK-based think-tank, the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR). Keeping "the euro alive will require cuts in living standards greater than the UK faced in the Second World War" for weaker eurozone members.

Meanwhile, ratings agency Moody's has kept its negative outlook on Spanish banks, saying their profitability and access to market funding are expected to remain weak. The difficult economic conditions are driving this weakness, as are the continued asset-quality deterioration and the government's fiscal austerity plans, said the ratings agency.

Also on a euro-theme, banks mildly reduced their holdings of Greek, Irish, Portuguese and Spanish debt in the second quarter to $107bn to $2.28trn, the BIS said in its latest quarterly report.

French lenders had $410bn at stake in the four countries. Banks in the UK had $370bn at risk, and lenders in the US $353bn.

Other lenders had about $242bn in public-sector exposure to Spain, Ireland, Greece and Portugal, the BIS figures showed.

DO YOU OWN THE RIGHT STOCKS?

Analyze Your Stocks FREE! – Click Here

Asian Markets End In Positive Territory

Asian markets open for trading on Monday ended the session in positive territory, taking cues from Wall Street where the major indices ended in positive territory on Friday on optimism about sustaining economic recovery. China's measures to increase banks' reserve requirements and refrain from raising interest rates despite inflation surpassing 5% as per latest estimates also lifted market sentiment.

In Australia, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 Index advanced 11.20 points, or 0.24%, and closed at 4,757 points, while the All-Ordinaries Index ended at 4,841, representing a gain of 11.20 points, or 0.23%.

Light sweet crude oil futures for January delivery was trading at $88.19 a barrel in electronic trading, up $0.40 per barrel from previous close at $87.79 a barrel in New York on Friday.

A set of banking competition reform measures unveiled by Treasury Secretary Wayne Swan over the weekend lifted the prices of major four banks in the country on expectations that the new measures will not affect the performance of the major banks. ANZ Bank advanced 1.13%, Commonwealth Bank of Australia gained 1.21%, National Australia Bank rose 1.45% and Westpac Banking Corp. climbed 1.46%. Investment banking company Macquarie Group ended in positive territory with a gain of 0.65%.

However, shares of regional banks ended in negative territory reacting to the new competition measures unveiled by the Federal Government. Shares of Bank of Queensland slumped 3.52%, while shares of Bendigo & Adelaide Bank fell 3.32%.

Mixed trading was witnessed among resource stocks. BHP Billiton remained unchanged from previous close. Rio Tinto advanced 0.47%, Fortescue Metals gained 1.03%, Gindalbie Metals climbed 1.93%, and Minara Resources added 0.64%. However, Iluka Resources declined 1.52%, Macarthur Coal edged down 0.23%, Mincor Resources lost 1.39% and Murchison Metals fell 1.54%.

Gold related stocks  ended in negative territory. Newcrest Mining slipped 0.27% and Avoca Resources declined 0.64%.

Mixed trading was witnessed among oil related stocks. Woodside Petroleum declined 0.58%, ROC Oil Ltd fell 1.30% and Oil Search lost 0.29%. However, Origin Energy ended in positive territory with a gain of 1.14% and Santos Ltd advanced 0.32%.

In Japan, the benchmark Nikkei 225 Index advanced 81.94 points, or 0.80% to 10,294, while the broader Topix index of all First Section issues rose 9.18 points, or 1.03%, to 897.

We Have Two Picks for September Premium Newsletter Free to join! Click here

All the 33 sectors in the Tokyo Stock exchange ended in positive territory, with sentiment in the market lifted by the local currency which increased about 84 yen per US dollar.

Shares of securities and brokerage houses ended in positive territory. Daiwa Securities Group surged up 4.01%, Nomura Holdings climbed 2.77%, Matsui Securities Co., advanced 1.37% and Mizuho Securities was higher by 3.30%.

Large banks also ended in positive territory. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial advanced 1.79%, Resona Holdings climbed 1.97%, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial surged up 2.86% and Mizuho Financial rose 2.14%.

Among sea transport related stocks, Kawasaki Kishen Kaisha climbed 2.27% and Nippon Yusen KK added 0.82%. Mitsui OSK Lines, however, remained unchanged from previous close.

Positive trading across neighboring Asian markets, especially the markets in Australia, Japan, Hong Kong and China and positive trading across the European markets helped key indices in Indian market - the broader Nifty index and the benchmark BSE-30 sensex end in positive territory for the second successive trading session Monday. The Nifty index, having opened flat from previous close drifted lower on disturbing political climate and weakness in banks to as low as 5796 in early trading, but recovered smartly in afternoon session led by dip buying in realty, metal, power and bank stocks and ended at 5,907, a gain of 50.30 points or 0.86%.

Among the other markets in the region, China's Shanghai Composite Index ended in positive territory with a sharp gain of 81.91 points, or 2.88% to close at 2,923, HongKong's Hang Seng Index advanced 154.76 points, or 0.67% to close at 23,318, Seoul Composite Index in South Korea added 10.45 points, or 0.53%, to close at 2,000, and Taiwan Weighted Index gained advanced 17.76 points or 0.20% to close at 8,737. However, Jakarta Composite Index in Indonesia ended in negative territory with a loss of 55.48 points, or 1.48%, at 3,692 and Singapore's Strait Times Index slipped 3.10 points, or 0.10%, to close at 3,182.

Our "Value Packed" online trading seminar will show you how you can.

Click Here To Find Out More

Investors Hub Services