Live Index – Mon, 30 Nov 2015 Premarket

December E-mini S&Ps (ESZ15 +0.13%) are up +0.08% and European stocks are up +0.81% at a 3-1/2 month high. European stocks recovered from early losses and EUR/USD Slid to a 7-1/2 month low on expectations for the ECB to take additional steps to boost inflation at Thursday’s policy meeting. European automakers were leading the overall market higher with Volkswagen AG and PSA Peugeot Citroen both up more than 2% on expectations of increased profits with the sell-off in EUR/USD. Limiting gains in stocks is a sell-off in BHP Billiton Ltd. which fell nearly 6% to a 7-year low as Brazil said it is seeking $ 5.2 billion in compensation for a dam collapse at an iron-ore mine run by Billiton ad Vales SA. Asian stocks settled mostly lower: Japan -0.69%, Hong Kong -0.33%, China +0.26%, Taiwan -0.93%, Australia -0.69%, Singapore -0.11%, South Korea -1.94%, India +0.07%. China’s Shanghai Composite rebounded from a 3-week low in the last hour of trade and closed higher on speculation the government intervened in the market to support equities.

The dollar index (DXY00 +0.20%) is up +0.21% at an 8-1/2 month high. EUR/USD (^EURUSD) is down -0.16% at a 7-1/2 month low. USD/JPY (^USDJPY) is up +0.21%.

Dec T-note prices (ZNZ15 -0.10%) are down -5 ticks.

Japan Oct industrial production rose +1.4% m/m and fell -1.4% y/y, weaker than expectations of +1.8% m/m and -0.9% y/y.

German Oct retail sales fell -0.4% m/m and rose +2.1% y/y, weaker than expectations of +0.4% m/m and +2.9% y/y.

Key U.S. news today includes: (1) Nov Milwaukee ISM (expected +1.34 to 48.00, Oct +7.22 to 46.66), (2) Nov Chicago PMI (expected -2.2 to 54.0, Oct +7.5 to 56.2), (3) Oct pending home sales (expected +1.0% m/m and +4.5% y/y, Sep -2.3% m/m and +2.5% y/y), (4) Nov Dallas Fed manufacturing outlook level of general business activity (expected +2.7 to -10.0, Oct -3.2 to 12.7).

There are 2 of the Russell 3000 companies report earnings today: Golar LNG (consensus -0.33), Thor Industries (0.83).

U.S. IPO’s scheduled to price today: GenSight Biologics (GNST), Ardelyx (ARDX).

Equity conferences this week include: Berenberg Bank European Conference on Mon, Citi Chemicals Conference on Tue, Credit Suisse Technology Conference on Tue, Citi Basic Materials Conference on Tue-Wed, Cowen and Company Ultimate Energy Conference on Tue-Wed, Piper Jaffray Health Care Conference on Tue-Wed, Credit Suisse Global Industrials Conference on Tue-Thu, Credit Suisse Technology, Media & Telecom Conference on Tue-Thu, Citi Global Financial Conference on Wed, J.P. Morgan Fintech & Specialty Finance Forum on Wed, Wells Fargo Connected Commerce Investor Summit on Wed, NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. Investor Program on Wed-Thu, ASEAN Business Summit on Wed-Thu, Bank of America Merrill Lynch Leveraged Finance Conference on Thu.

Helmerich & Payne (HP -1.93%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Guggenheim.

Microsoft (MSFT +0.45%) was raised to a ‘Strong Buy’ at Raymond James.

Diamond Offshore Drilling (DO -3.62%) and Transocean (RIG -2.49%) were both raised to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Guggenheim.

Dynavax Technologies (DVAX -0.64%) was rated a new ‘Outperform’ at RBC Capital Markets with a 12-month price target of $ 48.

Prologis (PLD +0.83%) was downgraded to ‘Market Perform’ from Outperform’ at Wells Fargo Securities.

Marriott International (MAR -0.50%) and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide ({=HOT were both cut to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at Evercore ISI.

Raytheon (RTN +0.54%) was cut to ‘Equal Weight’ from ‘Overweight’ at Barclays.

FMC Technologies (FTI -1.56%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Guggenheim.

Lululemon (LULU -0.85%) was cut to ‘Under Perform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at FBR Capital.

Paccar (PCAR +0.47%) was downgraded to ‘Sector Perform’ from ‘Outperform’ at RBC Capital Markets.

Quest Diagnostics (DGX +0.34%) won dismissal of a class action lawsuit brought by consumers claiming it monopolized the Northern California diagnostic labs market.

According to Catchpoint Systems, Neiman Marcus’ (NMG) webpage was down for nearly the entire day on Black Friday.

According to people familiar with the company’s plans, American International Group (AIG +0.84%) is considering the sale of blocks of life policies.

Dec E-mini S&Ps (ESZ15 +0.13%) this morning are up +1.75 points (+0.08%). Friday’s closes: S&P 500 +0.06%, Dow Jones -0.08%, Nasdaq +0.16%. The S&P 500 on Friday closed higher on optimism about the holiday shopping season after Adobe Systems reported a surge in e-commerce sales on Thanksgiving day with an expected $ 1.7 billion expected to be spent online, a +22% increase from last year. In addition, there was a rally in small cap stocks as health-care and consumer staples companies moved higher. Stocks were undercut by a -5.48% plunge in China’s Shanghai Composite and by weakness in media stocks after Disney dropped over 3% after it reported subscriptions to its ESPN sports programming fell 3% in its last fiscal year.

Dec 10-year T-notes (ZNZ15 -0.10%) this morning are down -5 ticks. Friday’s closes: TYZ5 +3.50, FVZ5 +2.00. Dec T-notes on Friday rallied to a 3-week high and closed higher on safe-haven demand after the -5.5% plunge in the China Shanghai Composite index. T-notes were also boost by carryover support from a rally in German bunds to a 4-week high on expectations for the ECB to cut its deposit facility rate by 10 bp when it meets on Thursday.

The dollar index (DXY00 +0.20%) this morning is up +0.210 (+0.21%) at a fresh 8-1/2 month high. EUR/USD (^EURUSD) is down -0.0017 (-0.16%) at a news 7-1/2 month low. USD/JPY (^USDJPY) is up +0.26 (+0.21%). Friday’s closes: Dollar Index +0.225 (+0.23%), EUR/USD -0.0014 (-0.13%), USD/JPY +0.28 (+0.23%). The dollar index on Friday climbed to an 8-1/2 month high and closed higher on divergent central bank policies with the Fed expected to raise interest rates in December while the ECB this Thursday is expected to cut the bank deposit rate by 10 bp to -0.30% and expand its QE program.

Jan crude oil (CLF16 +0.41%) this morning is up +34 cents (+0.82%) and Jan gasoline (RBF16 -0.16%) is up +0.0054 (+0.40%). Friday’s closes: CLF6 -1.27 (-2.95%), RBF6 -0.0138 (-1.02%). Jan crude oil and gasoline on Friday closed lower on the rally in the dollar index to an 8-1/2 month high and concern about the global crude oil supply glut after the chairman of Libya’s National Oil Corp. said that oil production from Libya’s Sharara and Elephant oil fields, which have been closed for a year with a combined capacity of 440,000 bpd, could resume full production within a week of a decision to restart operations.