NOTABLE MOVES
As of Fri, Mar 15, Singapore Time zone UTC+8
USDJPY, +0.45%, $111.71
EURUSD, -0.22%, $1.1307
GBPUSD, -0.21%, $1.3257
USDCAD, +0.12%, $1.3324
AUDUSD, -0.36%, $0.7068
NZDUSD, -0.31%, $0.6837
S&P500, -0.09%, 2,808.48
Nasdaq, -0.19%, 7,243.01
Nikkei Futures, +0.71%, 21,200.0
CURRENCY MARKET WRAP
- New home sales decreased 6.9% month-over-month in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 607,000 (consensus 623,000). On a year-over-year basis, new home sales were down 4.1%.The key takeaway from the report is that new home sales activity continues to be soft despite moderating price pressures.
- Initial claims for the week ending March 9 increased by 6,000 to 229,000 (consensus 225,000) while continuing claims for the week ending March 2 increased by 18,000 to 1.776 million. The key takeaway from the report is that there were no wide swings to disrupt the view that employers are generally reluctant to cut staff due to tight labor market conditions.
- U.S. Treasuries finished on a lower note, pushing yields higher across the curve. The 2-yr yield increased one basis point to 2.45%, and the 10-yr yield increased two basis points to 2.63%. The U.S. Dollar Index rose 0.2% to 96.78. WTI crude rose 0.5% to $58.58/bbl.
- In Brexit, Theresa May wins U.K. parliament’s backing for her plan to delay Brexit. Thursday’s vote also sets up May for a difficult meeting next week with the remaining 27 EU leaders who are themselves divided over the proposed extension to Brexit. The public response from the EU was guarded after the vote. While EU diplomats do not expect any extension request to be rejected outright, there is no consensus between the 27 remaining member states over how long to delay Britain’s exit date and what conditions to apply. But Donald Tusk, the European Council president, has said he will make the case for a long extension that allows Britain to “rethink” its approach to Brexit when he consults EU leaders in the run-up to next week’s European Council meeting. Sterling pulled back yesterday because a request to delay Article 50 leaves the UK right where it started.
STOCK MARKET WRAP
- The S&P 500 lost 0.09% on Thursday in a tight-ranged trading session. The S&P 500 materials (-0.8%) and communication services (-0.4%) sectors underperformed the broader market. Conversely, the heavily-weighted financials (+0.4%) and information technology (+0.2%) sectors outperformed.
- A New York Times report indicated that Facebook is under criminal investigation for some of its data deals that it arranged with tech companies. In Boeing‘s case, it continued to be weighed down by concerns surrounding the forced grounding of its 737 MAX 8 and 9 planes. Johnson & Johnson for its part was ordered to pay $29 million to a woman with cancer who used Johnson & Johnson’s talcum powder regularly.