U.S. stocks: Futures plunge on Fed, Portugal bank woes Gold rallies as stocks in Europe also retreat; trouble in Portugal By Barbara Kollmeyer, MarketWatch MADRID (MarketWatch) — Wall Street was bracing for sharp losses at Thursday’s open as stock futures fell sharply a day after the Federal Reserve revealed key elements of its exit plan for bond-buying and as the parent of a Portuguese bank delayed payments on some short-term debt. Weekly jobless claims and a speech from a key Federal Reserve member are ahead, while Costco Wholesale Corp. could see action after same-store sales, and as another retailer was poised for more losses. Click to Play Fed sets October end for bond buying Federal Reserve officials agreed to end the central banks bond-buying program by October. Losses ramped up for futures through Europe’s morning. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJU4 -0.90% sank 144 points, or 0.9%, to 16,769, while those for the S&P 500 index SPU4 -0.91% tumbled 17 points, or 0.9%, to 1,950.20. Futures for the Nasdaq-100 index NDU4 -0.93% dropped 31.50 points, or 0.8%, to 3,854. Weekly jobless claims are due at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time, and economists expects claims will rise to 320,000 in the seven days ended July 5, from 315,000 in the prior week. At 10 a.m. Eastern Time, the government will issue wholesale inventories for May. Inventories increased 1.1% in April. Jobless claims likely to stay low, reflect improved labor market Also Thursday, Stanley Fischer will give his first major speech as vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, on financial reform in Cambridge, Mass. Kansas City Fed President Esther George will speak on the economy and monetary policy in Oklahoma at 1.15 p.m. Eastern Time. Stocks closed modestly higher on Wednesday, after the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting revealed policy makers planned to end the Fed’s bond-buying program by October if the economy stays on track. The S&P 500 SPX +0.46% gained 0.5% to 1,972.83. But markets seem to be having second thoughts on Thursday. Within those minutes, noted James Hughes, chief market analyst at Alpari, were Fed concerns that the recent volatility in financial markets is proof investors aren’t factoring in a more hawkish central-bank approach. Bloomberg Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer “The complacency point is actually really a key point to these markets at the moment,” said Hughes, who notes that investors arent facing monetary change only in the U.S., but in Europe and the U.K., as well. “Any rally like this, which has been so strong and built on such low volatility — any kind of surprise will just flip the switch on this, and there will be no foundations to hold it together.” He said the Dow industrials’ DJIA +0.47% failure to hold on to 17,000 is a sign of a “psychological cap” for markets. Some blamed Europe’s troubles for U.S. losses. The Stoxx Europe 600 index XX:SXXP -1.22% logged a fifth day of losses, dropping 1.4% as banks tumbled. Portugal’s PSI 20 PT:PSI20 -4.18% PT:PSI20 -4.18% skidded nearly 4% after Espirito Santo Financial Group SA PT:ESF -8.92% , the controlling lender of Banco Espirito Santo SA CA:BES 0.00% , suspended trading its own shares and bonds, citing “ongoing material difficulties.” Banco Espirito, which was still trading, plunged 15%, while other Portuguese banks and banks across southern Europe fell in tandem. But Keith McCullough, chief executive officer at Hedgeye Risk Management, said investors shouldn’t look to Portugal as an explanation for why futures are crumbling. “To blame a globally interconnected market of massive risks on Portugal is lame. This move in U.S. bond yields (straight down since the jobs report headfake), gold (straight up) and U.S. mo-mo stocks (straight down mon-tue) is the bigger picture of risk,” he said in emailed comments. Europe also had bad data. Italy’s industrial production unexpectedly fell 1.2% in May, the biggest decline since November 2012, and French production also surprised with a 1.7% drop, the largest fall in more than 18 months. *********************************************** TIG評論 很久沒在美股盤前看到跌一百多點的大波 主要原因有二 一是FED將結束買債 一是葡萄牙銀行問題
Posted on: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 12:35:11 +0000
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