Japanese and Australian stock-index futures (XPA) rose, signaling the benchmark Asian equity index may snap a four-day drop before the release of minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s July meeting. New Zealand’s dollar weakened to a two-week low and copper futures fell. Nikkei 225 Stock Average futures were bid at 13,440 in the Osaka pre-market, after closing at 13,405 in Chicago and 13,410 in Japan yesterday. Futures on Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 0.3 percent. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures were little changed after the gauge gained 0.4 percent in the U.S. as 10-year Treasury yields fell from the highest level since 2011. New Zealand’s currency slipped a third day and the yen held gains versus the greenback. Copper futures fell 0.4 percent and crude oil rallied in New York. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index has lost more than 3 percent over the past four days as outflows from emerging markets added to concern that the Fed will start reducing its bond buying program next month. In a Bloomberg survey Aug. 9-13, 65 percent of economists predicted the U.S. central bank would taper stimulus at their September meeting. The Conference Board’s leading economic index for China is released today, and Malaysia may say economic growth held below 5 percent last quarter. PetroChina Co. (857) and Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (WPL) post earnings. “The Fed is talking about tapering because the economy is getting better,” Mark Lister, Wellington-based head of private wealth research at Craigs Investment Partners Ltd., said by phone. “We’re seeing some signs of life come out of the U.S. and you can’t lose sight of the fact that’s positive and encouraging. In the short-term markets will continue to grapple with this unknown scenario.” Homes Data Ten-year Treasury yields slid 6.4 basis points to 2.82 percent in New York, after rising to 2.88 percent Aug. 19, the highest close since July 28, 2011. Yields on 30-year bonds dropped five basis points, or 0.05 percentage point, to 3.85 percent. Benefits of more bond purchases “are likely to be negligible,” Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker said in an interview in the Richmond Times-Dispatch newspaper Aug. 18. Fed officials have said over the past few weeks that the U.S. employment market may be improving enough to warrant a reduction in stimulus. Data today may show existing home sales rose in July, according to a Bloomberg survey. Options Error A programming error at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. caused unintended stock-option orders to flood American exchanges yesterday. Clients expressed interest in certain options trades and the software mistook the indications for actual orders to send to exchanges, said a person familiar with the situation, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to discuss the matter. Some orders had default prices far from the market, the person said. The size of Goldman’s loss depends on which trades are canceled by exchanges, he said. Some transactions have already been voided, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The Bloomberg China-US Equity Index of the most-traded Chinese stocks in New York fell a second day, losing 0.4 percent as web retailer LightInTheBox Holding Co. sank 40 percent after forecasting a drop in third-quarter sales. Futures on Hong Kong’s Hang Seng (HSI) Index added 0.5 percent in their most recent trading session, as contracts on the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index climbed 0.7 percent. The gauge of Chinese shares traded in the city sank 2.9 percent yesterday, the most since July 3. The Hang Seng dropped 2.2 percent. Emerging Rout The MSCI Emerging Markets Index tumbled 1.4 percent in a fourth day of declines yesterday as developing-nation currencies led a slump against the dollar. Brazil’s Ibovespa (IBOV) fell for the first time in 10 days, snapping its longest rally since August 2010, as commodity producers tumbled. Investors have withdrawn about $8.4 billion from emerging-market exchange-traded funds this year as weakening economies from India to Indonesia fueled pessimism over the regional and global outlook. MSCI’s All-Country World Index slipped 0.2 percent yesterday. The yen was little changed at 97.34 per dollar by 8:09 a.m. in Tokyo, after strengthening 0.3 percent yesterday in its first day of gains this week. Japan’s currency, viewed as a safe haven by some investors, lost 0.1 percent to 130.63 per euro today, after weakening 0.3 percent yesterday. The Bloomberg U.S. Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against 10 major peers, was steady after falling 0.3 percent in New York for its first decline in three days. The euro was steady at $1.3419 today, after climbing 0.6 percent yesterday. Weakening Kiwi The currency known as the kiwi lost 0.2 percent to 79.61 U.S. cents, set for the lowest close since Aug. 6. Home-loan restrictions unveiled yesterday by the central bank are stoking speculation the need for benchmark interest-rate increases has been reduced. Two-year interest-rate swaps fell 3.4 percent yesterday to 3.42 percent, the steepest drop since February on a closing basis. Australia’s dollar was little changed at 90.66 cents today, after weakening 0.4 percent yesterday. Malaysia’s ringgit, which capped a seven-day retreat yesterday to close at the weakest level since 2010, has depreciated too much for an economy set to perform better in the next few months, Abdul Wahid Omar, minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of economic planning, said in an interview yesterday. Southeast Asia’s third-largest economy may have grown 4.7 percent in the three months to June 30 from a year earlier, according to the median of 22 economists’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg before data due today. While that is an increase from the 4.1 percent advance in gross domestic product in the first quarter, all but three of those surveyed expect growth to stay below 5 percent in the weakest six-month performance since 2009. Taiwan Closed India’s central bank announced plans to buy long-dated sovereign bonds yesterday as 10-year yields (USGG30YR) touched 9.48 percent, the highest level since 2001, and the country struggles to rein in a record current-account deficit. One-month non-deliverable forwards on the rupee strengthened 0.7 percent today, after weakening over the past three days. The rupee closed at a record-low 63.23 per dollar yesterday. Taiwan’s markets are closed today amid a tropical storm and the Philippines is shut for a holiday. The S&P 500 rebounded yesterday from its lowest level in six weeks, led by retailers on better-than-expected earnings. Thailand is expected to keep benchmark rates on hold at 2.5 percent, according to the median in a Bloomberg survey of economists. Retailers Rally Retailers in the gauge rallied 1.2 percent as a group as 28 of 32 companies advanced. Best Buy Co. jumped 13 percent after posting results that exceeded projections and its largest quarterly profit in more than two years. J.C. Penney Co. added 6 percent amid signs the company’s sales slide is slowing and after Bloomberg News reported that a person familiar with the matter said hedge-fund manager J. Kyle Bass is betting on a comeback by the company in credit markets. Urban Outfitters Inc. (URBN) jumped 8.2 percent after earnings-per-share beat estimates by 6.7 percent and Wedbush Securities Inc. raised its rating on the stock. Zillow Inc. (Z) dropped 4.8 percent after the operator of the largest U.S. real-estate website announced a share sale. “We had some pretty good retail earnings, it just shows the consumer is not dead and that things are moving in the right direction,” Frank Ingarra, head trader at Greenwich, Connecticut-based NorthCoast Asset Management LLC, said by phone yesterday. His firm manages about $1.7 billion. “Everyone is still focused on Fed tapering. We remain cautiously bullish with pretty full exposure to stocks.” Metals Retreat About four shares declined for each that advanced in the Stoxx Europe 600 Index, which fell 0.8 percent in a second day of losses yesterday. Gold lost 0.1 percent to $1,369.55 an ounce in early trading today, after gaining 0.4 percent yesterday. Silver retreated 0.1 percent and palladium slipped 0.2 percent. Copper futures fell after the metal for three-month delivery rose 0.2 percent on the London Metal Exchange yesterday. The S&P GSCI (SPGSCI) gauge of 24 commodities lost 0.6 percent in New York as West Texas Intermediate oil declined to $104.96 a barrel. WTI added 0.3 percent to $105.22 today. To contact the reporters on this story: Emma O’Brien in Wellington at [email protected]; Adam Haigh in Sydney at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: Emma O’Brien at [email protected]
Posted on: Tue, 20 Aug 2013 23:48:40 +0000
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