Live Index – Thu, 24 Mar 2016 Premarket

Jun E-mini S&Ps (ESM16 -0.54%) are down -0.47% and European stocks are down -1.44%, as a stronger dollar undercuts commodity prices and drags down raw-material and energy producing stocks. Hawkish comments from Fed officials this week have bolstered the chance of a Fed rate hike next month and boosted the dollar and led to a sell-off in commodities. Crude oil is down -2.26% at a 1-week low, gold is down -0.41% at a 1-month low, and copper is down -0.51% at a 1-week low. Asian stocks settled lower: Japan -0.64%, Hong Kong -1.31%, China -1.63%, Taiwan -0.26%, Australia -1.13%, Singapore -1.20%, South Korea -0.47%, India closed for holiday. Losses in crude oil producers led Chinese stocks lower after PetroChina Co. posted its weakest annual profit since 1999. The yuan slipped to a 1-week low against he dollar after the PBOC lowered its reference rate for yuan by 0.33%, the most in 2-1/2 months.

The dollar index (DXY00 +0.16%) is up +0.15% at a 1-week high. EUR/USD (^EURUSD) is down -0.09% at a 1-week low. USD/JPY (^USDJPY) is up +0.23% at a 1-week high.

Jun T-note prices (ZNM16 +0.04%) are up +0.5 of a tick.

In its monthly Economic Bulletin published today, the ECB said the monetary-policy package announced this month “will exploit the synergies between the different instruments and has been calibrated to further ease financing conditions, stimulate new credit provision and thereby reinforce the momentum of the Eurozone’s economic recovery and accelerate the return of inflation.”

Key U.S. news today includes: (1) St. Louis Fed President James Bullard’s speech on the U.S. economy and monetary policy at an even hosted by the New York Association for Business Economics, (2) weekly initial unemployment claims (expected +3,000 to 268,000, previous +7,000 to 265,000) and continuing claims (expected unch at 2.235 million, previous +8,000 to 2.235 million), (3) Feb durable goods orders (expected -3.0% and -0.3% ex-transportations, Jan +4.7% and +1.7% ex-transportation) (4) Mar Markit services PMI (expected +1.7 to 51.4, Feb -3.5 to 49.7), and (5) Mar Kansas City Fed manufacturing activity (Feb -3 to -12).

There are 4 of the Russell 1000 companies that report earnings today: Accenture (consensus $ 1.18), Signet Jewelers (3.63), GameStop (2.27), Carnival Corp (0.32).

U.S. IPO’s scheduled to price today: none.

Equity conferences during the remainder of this week include: BB&T Capital Markets Commercial & Industrial Investors Conference on Wed-Thu.

Wells Fargo (WFC -1.21%) was rated a new ‘Sell’ at UBS With a aprice target of $ 45.

General Dynamics (GD -0.68%) was downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at Deutsche Bank.

Concordia Healthcare (CXRX -2.56%) reported Q4 adjusted EPS continuing operations of $ 1.24, below consensus of $ 1.30.

T-Mobile (TMUS -0.56%) was rated a new ‘Buy’ at FBR Captal with a price target of $ 40.

Dollar General (DG +0.73%) said that it will open 900 new stores in 2016 and 1,000 in 2017.

H.B. Fuller (FUL -2.26%) reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 43 cents, above consensus of 39 cents, although Q1 revenue of $ 474.3 million was below consensus of $ 477.8 million.

Sportsman’s Warehouse Holdings (SPWH -1.29%) dropped 7% in after-hours trading after it said it sees fiscal year EPS of 65 cents-73 cents, below consensus of 75 cents.

Oxford Industries (OXM -2.79%) lowered guidance on fiscal year adjusted EPS to $ 3.75-$ 3.95, below consensus of $ 3.99.

PVH Corp. (PVH -1.53%) rose over 3% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 adjusted EPS of $ 1.52, above consensus of $ 1.46, and said it sees Q1 adjusted EPS of $ 1.40-$ 1.45, well above consensus of $ 1.33.

KB Home (KBH -3.82%) rallied over 7% in after-hours trading after it reported Q1 EPS of 14 cents, higher than consensus of 11 cents.

Lannett (LCI +0.15%) lost 1% in after-hours trading after it lowered guidance on fiscal 2016 net sales to $ 555 million-$ 565 million from a prior forecast of $ 585 million-$ 595 million, below consensus of $ 582.2 million.

Office Depot (ODP +2.09%) climbed nearly 9% in after-hours trading after the judge handling the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) lawsuit to prevent Staples’ planned merger with Office Depot rebuked the FTC over its legal tactics and accused them of pressuring Amazon to provide favorable testimony.

Terex (TEX -2.78%) jumped 10% in after-hours trading after it received a revised $ 31-a-share bid buyout offer from Zoomlion.

Vitae Pharmaceuticals (VTAE -4.27%) slipped 2% in after-hours trading after it started a secondary share offering via Piper Jaffray and BMO Capital Markets.

Reeds (REED -1.11%) slumped over 10% in after-hours trading after it reported a fiscal 2015 loss of -30 cents, a bigger loss than consensus of -28 cents.

Jun E-mini S&Ps (ESM16 -0.54%) this morning are down -9.50 points (-0.47%). Wednesday’s closes: S&P 500 -0.64%, Dow Jones -0.453%, Nasdaq -0.79%. The S&P 500 on Wednesday closed lower on weakness in commodity and energy producers as commodity prices sold off and on hawkish comments by St. Louis Fed President Bullard who said the FOMC should consider raising interest rates at next month’s meeting amid the prospects of inflation and unemployment exceeding Fed targets.

Jun 10-year T-notes (ZNM16 +0.04%) this morning are up +0.5 of a tick. Wednesday’s closes: TYM6 +17.00, FVM6 +10.25. Jun T-notes on Wednesday closed higher on increased safe-haven demand for T-notes as stocks declined and on the sell-off in crude oil, which reduced inflation expectations.

The dollar index (DXY00 +0.16%) this morning is up +0.146 (+0.15%) at a 1-week high. EUR/USD (^EURUSD) is down -0.0010 (-0.09%) at a 1-week low. USD/JPY (^USDJPY) is up +0.26 (+0.23%) at a 1-week high. Wednesday’s closes: Dollar Index +0.398 (+0.42%), EUR/USD -0.0036 (-0.32%), USD/JPY +0.01 (+0.01%). The dollar index on Wednesday closed higher on comments from Philadelphia Fed President Harker who said that “it is appropriate to consider every FOMC meeting live” for an interest rate hike and comments from St. Louis Fed President Bullard who said the FOMC should consider raising interest rates at next month’s meeting as “I think we are going to end up overshooting on inflation” and the natural rate of unemployment.

May WTI crude (CLK16 -2.24%) this morning is down -90 cents (-2.26%) at a 1-week low and May gasoline (RBK16 -1.31%) is down -0.0182 (-1.23%). Wednesday’s closes: CLK6 -1.66 (-4.00%), RBK6 -0.0428 (-2.80%). May crude and gasoline on Wednesday closed sharply lower on a stronger dollar and the +9.357 million bbl surge in weekly EIA crude inventories to a record high 532.5 million bbl (vs expectations of +2.5 million bbl). Crude oil prices received underlying support from the -1.258 million bbl decline in crude supplies at Cushing, the first decline in the last 8 weeks, and from the -0.3% decline in U.S. crude production in the week ended Mar 18 to a 16-month low of 9.038 million bpd.