Latest Posts

rss

US stocks end the session off highs but still higher on the day

  
Analysis, US Market

S&P and Nasdaq off to the best start to year since 2012. The Dow is on pace to close the month in the red

The US stock indices are ending the session with solid gains but still a bit off the best levels. The S&P and Nasdaq broke a two day slide. Those indices are off to the best start to the year since 2012. The quarter ends at the end of the week.
IN contrast, the Dow is on pace for ending the month in the red.
The final numbers are showing:
  • The S&P rose 20.10 points or 0.72% at 2818.46. That 2817 area was an old ceiling until this month.  The high for the month reached 2860, but has come back down over the last two days.
S&P and Nasdaq off to the best start to year since 2012. The Dow is on pace to close the month in the red
  • The Nasdaq closed up 53.982 or 0.71% at 7691.52. The high reached 7738.168. The low reached 7649.207
  • The Dow closed up 140 points or 0.55% at 25657.73. The high reached 25796.29. The low reached 25544.78.

US treasury to auction off US$40 billion of two-year notes at the top of the hour

  
  Analysis

The WI is trading at 2.27% ahead of the auction

The U.S. Treasury will be want to of US$40 billion of two-year notes at 1300 ET/1700 GMT.
The current WI (when-issued) yield is trading at 2.27%.
The last auction was auctioned at a high yield of 2.503% (on Februeary 25th).  Since then, the Fed has taken out the tightening bias in 2019, and yields moved sharply lower. The low yield yesterday moved to the lowest level since March 2018 (see chart below).
The WI is trading at 2.27% ahead of the auction
Other information from the last auction(s).
  • Bid to cover (a measure of demand) came in at 2.5x. The last 6 auctions has come in at 2.52x
  • Directs came in at 22.6%
  • Indirects came in at 38.6%

European shares are ending the day higher

  
Analysis, Global Indices

Spain flat though

The major European stock indices are ending the day higher. The section is the Spanish ibex which is ending flat
  • German DAX, +0.65%
  • France’s CAC, +0.90%
  • UK’s FTSE, +0.37%
  • Spain’s Ibex, flat
  • Italy’s FTSE MIB, +0.38%

In the 10 year note sector yields are ending the session mixed.  Germany, UK and France yields are higher, while Spain Italy and Portugal are lower.

Spain flat though

Macron, Merkel and Juncker urge China to open up domestic markets

  
Analysis, Economy

France, Germany and the European Commission pushed Chinese president Xi Jinping to open his country’s protected domestic market to foreign business, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel insisting on “a certain amount of reciprocity” from Beijing to seal a future EU-China investment agreement.

French President Emmanuel Macron invited Ms Merkel and Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the European Commission, to join him at the end of a bilateral summit with Mr Xi in Paris, in an attempt to underscore EU unity and Europe’s role as a commercial superpower on a par with the US and China.

Mr Macron said Europe’s openness had aided the spectacular transformation of the Chinese economy and helped lift 700m people out of poverty but also generated “deep tensions which lead to the need for legitimate protection” — an apparent reference to recent restrictions placed by some EU member states on Chinese acquisitions of high-tech companies.

Mr Macron and other EU states have complained in particular about the near-impossibility of foreign companies winning public procurement contracts in China, for example in railways or other transport infrastructure.

In his public statement, Mr Xi made no specific commitments on reciprocity, but said China would “continue to push forward with reform and opening up because China has been pursuing reform and opening up for the past four decades” in its high-speed modernisation and industrialisation since the 1970s.

The Chinese leader also issued a warning against mutual distrust in the China-EU relationship.

“We cannot let natural suspicion get the better of us,” he said. “We cannot always be guarded against each other and worry that they may do something behind our backs.”

Go to top