Day Traders Diary

11/1/13

U.S. equity futures hold modest pre-market gains with the S&P 500 futures trading higher by 0.2%.

Reviewing overnight developments:

Asian markets ended mixed. Hong Kong's Hang Seng +0.2%, China's Shanghai Composite +0.4%, and Japan's Nikkei -0.9% as the yen endured a volatile session. USDJPY fell below 98.00 before climbing back above 98.25 at the end of the Tokyo session.
Investors received several economic data points:
China's Manufacturing PMI rose to 51.4 from 51.1 (51.2 expected) while the HSBC Manufacturing PMI held steady at 50.9 (50.7 forecast).
South Korea's trade surplus expanded to $4.90 billion from $3.70 billion ($4.35 billion expected). Meanwhile, CPI slipped 0.3% month-over-month (0.1% forecast, 0.2% prior) while the year-over-year reading increased 0.7% (1.0% forecast, 0.8% last).
Australia's AIG Manufacturing Index rose to 53.2 from 51.7. Separately, PPI increased 1.3% quarter-over-quarter (0.7% forecast, 0.1% prior).
India's HSBC Markit Manufacturing PMI held steady at 49.60.
In news:
In China, the Shanghai Interbank Offered rate eased for the second day with the two-week rate registering the most notable decline, down 48 basis points to 5.03%.
Core European indices sport modest losses while peripheral markets lag. Great Britain's FTSE -0.1%, Germany's DAX -0.2%, and France's CAC -0.3%. Elsewhere, Italy's MIB -0.5% and Spain's IBEX -0.4%.
Economic data was limited:
Great Britain's Manufacturing PMI slipped to 56.0 from 56.3 (56.1 forecast).
Swiss SVME PMI fell to 54.2 from 55.3 (55.5 expected).
Looking at news:
The euro has continued its decline after disappointing unemployment and CPI data crossed the wires yesterday. The below-consensus CPI reading contributed to speculation that the European Central Bank could cut its key rate at next week's policy meeting. Since yesterday, the single currency has surrendered nearly 230 pips to the dollar. The pair currently trades near 1.3520.
In U.S. corporate news:

AIG (AIG 49.25, -2.40): -4.7% after reporting in-line earnings on below-consensus revenue.
First Solar (FSLR 53.96, +3.65): +7.3% after cruising past earnings estimates by $1.44 on above-consensus revenue.
Madison Square Garden (MSG 60.52, 0.00): reported a bottom-line beat on better-than-expected revenue.
Netflix (NFLX 329.00, +6.52): +2.0% after Robert W. Baird upgraded the stock to 'Outperform' from 'Neutral' while raising its price target to $420 from $383.
Today's economic data will be limited to the October ISM Index, which will be released at 10:00 ET.

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