Live Index – Mon, 08 Feb 2016 Premarket

March E-mini S&Ps (ESH16 -1.31%) are down -1.12% at a 2-week low and European stocks are down -2.11% at a 15-1/2 month low on global economic concerns. Weakness in crude oil and in copper pushed energy producers and mining stocks lower, while the cost of insuring the debt of European financial companies rose as the Markit iTraxx Europe Senior Financial Index of credit-default swaps climbed +11 bp to 132 bp, the highest in 2-3/4 years. A loss of confidence is another negative for European stocks after the Eurozone Feb Sentix investor confidence fell more than expected to the lowest in 13 months. The weakness in stocks and signs of distress in the European corporate bond market fueled a surge of safe-haven buying of government debt that pushed Germany’s 2-year note yield down to a record low -0.506% (data since 1990) and the yield on the German 10-year bund down to 0.247%, a 9-1/4 month low. Asian stocks settled mixed: Japan +1.10%, Australia -0.02%, India -1.34% with Hong Kong, China Taiwan Singapore and South Korea closed for holiday. Japanese stocks bucked the trend and closed higher as a rally exporters led the overall market higher after Friday’s U.S. Jan payrolls report boosted the dollar against the yen and improved the earnings prospects of Japanese exporters.

The dollar index (DXY00 +0.17%) is up +0.19%. EUR/USD (^EURUSD) is down -0.29%. USD/JPY (^USDJPY) is down -0.27%.

Mar T-note prices (ZNH16 +0.26%) are up +6 ticks.

The Eurozone Feb Sentix investor confidence fell -3.6 to 6.0, weaker than expectations of -2.2 to 7.4 and the lowest in 13 months.

Key U.S. news today includes: (1) no U.S. economic reports.

There are 6 of the S&P 500 companies that report earnings today: Diamond Offshore Drilling (consensus $ 0.52), Lowes (0.61), Cognizant Technology (0.78), Hasbro (1.300), Twenty-First Century Fox (0.44), Owens-Illinois (0.40).

U.S. IPO’s scheduled to price today: Advanced Inhalation Therapies (AITP).

Equity conferences today include: MicroStrategy World Conference on Mon, Credit Suisse Financial Services Forum on Tue-Wed, Stifel Nicolaus Transportation and Logistics Conference on Tue-Wed, Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference on Tue-Thu, Bank Of America Merrill Lynch Insurance Conference on Wed-Thu, BB&T Capital Markets Transportation Services Conference on Wed-Thu, Leerink Partners Global Health Care Conference on Wed-Thu, Morgan Stanley Chemicals Corporate Access Day on Thu.

CBOE Holdings (CBOE -1.62%) was downgraded to ‘Underpeform’ from ‘Outperform’ at CLSA.

Loews (L -0.71%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS of 46 cents, well below consensus of 61 cents.

Hasbro (HAS -2.37%) reported Q4 EPS of $ 1.39, better than consensus of $ 1.29.

L Brands (LB -3.96%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Brean Capital.

Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTSH -1.81%) reported Q4 EPS of 80 cents, higher than consensus of 78 cents.

Athenehealth (ATHN -12.84%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Topeka Capital Markets with a 12-month price target of $ 160.

Newell Rubbermaid (NWL -2.91%) was rated a new ‘Buy’ at Gabelli & Co.

St. Jude Medical (STJ -3.47%) was upgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Sell’ at Canaccord Genuity.

Cisco Systems (CSCO -2.76%) was upgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Underperform’ at Macquarie.

Kellogg (K +0.01%) was downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at Edward Jones.

Sprouts Farmers Market (SFM -2.59%) jumped 6% in after-hours trading after it said it will replace Solarwinds in the S&P Midcap 400 as of the close of trading on Monday, Feb 8.

GoPro (GPRO +1.84%) climbed nearly 5% in after-hours trading after it signed a collaborative patent licensing agreement with Microsoft for file storage and other system technologies.

NVIDIA Corp. (NVDA -6.31%) rose almost 1% in after-hours trading after a federal jury in Richmond, VA said that Nvidia doesn’t infringe on Samsung’s memory-chip patent.

Apollo Education Group (APOL -1.97%) fell 5% in after-hours trading after the company received a second subpoena from the California Attorney General on documents and information related to matters including marketing, recruiting, compensation of enrollment advisers, complaints and financial aid.

Mar E-mini S&Ps (ESH16 -1.31%) this morning are down -21.00 points (-1.12%) at a 2-week low. Friday’s closes: S&P 500 -1.85%, Dow Jones -1.29%, Nasdaq -3.44%. The S&P 500 on Friday closed sharply lower on concern about the U.S. economy after U.S. Jan payrolls rose by only +151,000, weaker than the +190,000 consensus. In addition, there was concern that the Fed may still be on course to raise interest rates based on rising wages after Jan average hourly earnings rose +0.5% m/m and +2.5% y/y, stronger than expectations of +0.3% m/m and +2.2% y/y.

Mar 10-year T-notes (ZNH16 +0.26%)this morning are up +6 ticks. Friday’s closes: TYH6 +3.00, FVH6 -1.25. Mar T-notes on Friday closed higher on the smaller-than-expected increase in U.S. Jan non-farm payrolls (+153,000 vs. expectations of +190,000) and on reduced inflation expectations after the 10-year T-note breakeven rate fell to a 1-week low. T-note prices were undercut by the U.S. Jan average hourly earnings report of +0.5% m/m and +2.5% y/y, stronger than expectations of +0.3% m/m and +2.2% y/y.

The dollar index (DXY00 +0.17%) this morning is up +0.187 (+0.19%). EUR/USD (^EURUSD) is down -0.0032 (-0.29%). USD/JPY (^USDJPY) is down -0.31 (-0.27%). Friday’s closes: Dollar Index +0.557 (+0.58%), EUR/USD +0.0051 (-0.45), USD/JPY +0.09 (+0.08%). The dollar index on Friday closed higher on the +0.5% m/m increase in U.S. Jan avg hourly earnings, stronger than expectations of +0.3% m/m and the biggest monthly increase in a year, which bolsters the case for the Fed to keep raising interest rates. The dollar index was also boosted by weakness in EUR/USD after German Dec factory orders fell more than expected.

Mar crude oil (CLH16 -2.62%) this morning is down -78 cents (-2.53%) and Mar gasoline (RBH16 -2.16%) is down -0.0207 (-2.09%). Friday’s closes: CLH6 -0.72 (-2.27%), RBH6 -0.0389 (-3.78%). Mar crude oil and gasoline on Friday closed lower on a stronger dollar and on the persistent oil glut with U.S. crude stockpiles more than 130 million bbl above the 5-year avg.