Day Traders Diary

7/3/14

U.S. equity futures hover near their pre-market highs amid upbeat action overseas. The S&P 500 futures trade almost three points above fair value with some volatility expected around 8:30 ET when the June jobs report crosses the wires. The Briefing.com consensus expects the report to reveal the addition of 210,000 nonfarm payrolls.
Reviewing overnight developments:
Asian markets ended mixed. China's Shanghai Composite +0.2%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng -0.1%, and Japan's Nikkei -0.1%.
In economic data:
China's Non-Manufacturing PMI fell to 55.0 from 55.5, while HSBC Services PMI jumped to 53.1 from 50.7
Hong Kong's Retail Sales fell 4.1% year-over-year (expected -6.4%, previous -9.8%)
India's HSBC Services PMI jumped to 54.4 from 50.2
Australia's Retail Sales fell 0.5% month-over-month (expected 0.3%, previous -0.1%), while Building Approvals jumped 9.9% month-over-month (expected 3.0%, prior -5.8%)
In news:
Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens said the Australian dollar remains overvalued by most measures, while troubling inflation in the property sector may be abating. The commodity currency fell to .9378 against the U.S. dollar.
Major European indices trade higher across the board. France's CAC +0.4%, Great Britain's FTSE +0.5%, and Germany's DAX +0.7%. Elsewhere, Spain's IBEX +0.1% and Italy's MIB +0.6%.
Participants received several data points:
Eurozone Retail Sales were unchanged month-over-month (expected 0.2%, previous -0.2%), while the year-over-year reading rose 0.7% (consensus 1.2%, prior 1.8%). Separately, Services PMI held steady at 52.8, as expected
Germany's Services PMI slipped to 54.6 from 54.8 (expected 54.8)
Great Britain's Services PMI fell to 57.7 from 58.6 (expected 58.3)
French Services PMI held steady at 48.2, as expected
Italy's Services PMI rose to 53.9 from 51.6 (expected 51.8)
Spain's Services PMI fell to 54.8 from 55.7 (consensus 55.8)
Among news of note:
Sweden's Riksbank surprised the market by cutting its main repurchase rate to 0.25% from 0.75%, while the general consensus called for a cut to 0.50%
The European Central Bank made no changes to its monetary policy, keeping its main lending rate at 0.15%.
In U.S. corporate news:

Cree (CREE 51.69, +1.38): +2.7% after being upgraded to 'Outperform' from 'Perform'
ResMed (RMD 49.84, -0.66): -1.3% after Deutsche Bank downgraded the stock to 'Hold' from 'Buy'
The Challenger Job Cuts report for June pointed to a 20.0% year-over-year decline.

Weekly initial claims (Briefing.com consensus 315K), June Nonfarm Payrolls (consensus 210K), and May Trade Balance (consensus -$45.20 billion) will all be released at 8:30 ET. The day's data will be topped off with the 10:00 ET release of the June ISM Services report (expected 56.5).

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