US : Pre Market News – 30 Mar 2017

Jun E-mini S&Ps (ESM17 -0.13%) this morning are down -0.13% and European stocks are down -0.26% after a gauge of Eurozone economic confidence unexpectedly declined. The Eurozone Mar economic confidence unexpectedly fell -0.1 to 107.9, weaker than expectations of +0.3 to 108.3. Also, weaker than-expected regional German inflation data point to a deceleration in inflation in Germany. The expected slower pace of inflation along with dovish comments from ECB members fueled a rally in German bund prices up to a 3-week high and pushed EUR/USD down to a 1-week low. ECB Executive Board member Praet said “we are not yet sufficiently confident that inflation will converge to levels consistent with our aim in a durable manner,” and ECB Council member Liikanen said the Eurozone still needs “a very substantial degree of monetary accommodation” to support prices. Asian stocks settled mostly lower: Japan -0.80%, Hong Kong -0.37%, China -0.96%, Taiwan -0.08%, Australia +0.39%, Singapore -0.36%, South Korea -0.07%, India +0.39%. China’s Shanghai Composite fell to a 2-week low on tight liquidity conditions after the PBOC refrained from adding cash to the financial system for the past three days, which undercut stocks on concern the government will implement measures to cool asset bubbles.

The dollar index (DXY00 +0.06%) is up +0.10% at a 1-week high. EUR/USD (^EURUSD) is down -0.23% at a 1-week low. USD/JPY (^USDJPY) is up +0.05.

Jun 10-year T-note prices (ZNM17 +0.09%) are up +1.5 ticks.

ECB Executive Board member Praet said “the firming of the recovery has not yet translated into a durable strengthening of inflation dynamics” and “we are not yet sufficiently confident that inflation will converge to levels consistent with our aim in a durable manner.”

ECB Council member Liikanen said the Eurozone still needs “a very substantial degree of monetary accommodation for underlying inflation pressures to build up and support inflation in the medium term.”

Eurozone Mar economic confidence unexpectedly fell -0.1 to 107.9, weaker than expectations of +0.3 to 108.3. The Mar business climate indicator was unchanged at 0.82, weaker than expectations of +0.05 to 0.87.

Key U.S. news today includes: (1) weekly initial unemployment claims (expected -11,000 to 247,000, previous +15,000 to 258,000) and continuing claims (expected +41,000 to 2.031 million, previous -39,000 to 1.990 million), (2) revised Q4 GDP (expected +2.0% q/q annualized, previous +1.9%) (3) Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan (voter) speaks in a moderated Q&A discussion at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce at its annual capital markets summit, (4) New York Fed President William Dudley (voter) speaks on financial conditions and the conduct of monetary policy at an event in Sarasota, FL, (5) USDA Q1 Hogs & Pigs Inventory, and (6) USDA weekly Export Sales.

Notable Russell 1000 earnings reports today include: Liberty Expedia Holdings, Dell Technologies Class V.

U.S. IPO’s scheduled to price today: Kayne Anderson Acquisition Corp (KAACU)

Equity conferences: Jefferies Animal Health Summit on Thu.

Lululemon Athletica (LULU +4.11%) plunged 17% in after-hours trading after it said it sees a Q1 total comparable sales decrease “in the low-single digits,” weaker than consensus of a +2.7% increase, and said it sees Q1 EPS of 25 cents-27 cents, below consensus of 39 cents.

Sunoco LP (SUN +0.83%) was rated a new ‘Sell’ at Goldman Sachs with a price target of $ 21.

Range Resources (RRC +4.17%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at UBS with a price target of $ 38.

INC Research Holdings (INCR +0.69%) gained over 2% in after-hours trading when it was announced that it will replace CEB Inc. in the S&P MidCap 400 Index before the open of trading on Wednesday, April 5.

Progress Software (PRGS +1.31%) climbed 6% in after-hours trading after it reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 34 cents, better than consensus of 26 cents.

ConocoPhillips (COP +1.26%) rose 6% and Cenovus Energy (CVE +0.85%) declined 7% in after-hours trading after Cenovus Energy purchased some ConocoPhillips oil sands assets and conventional natural gas assets in Alberta and British Columbia, Canada for $ 17.7 billion.

Worthington Industries (WOR +0.82%) dropped 5% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 net sales of $ 703.4 million, below consensus of $ 717.3 million.

Cara Therapeutics (CARA +6.08%) fell over 5% in after-hours trading after it announced that it had commenced an underwritten public offering of $ 80 million of shares of its common stock.

Esperion Therapeutics (ESPR -2.44%) gained 2% in after-hours trading after it was rated a new ‘Buy’ at UBS with a price target of $ 52.

OFS Capital (OFS -1.58%) slid nearly 4% in after-hours trading after it announced that it had commenced an underwritten offering of 3.5 million shares of common stock.

Extreme Networks (EXTR -1.07%) surged 15% in after-hours trading after it announced that it had purchased Brocade’s data center from Broadcom for $ 55 million in cash.

Sigma Designs (SIGM unch) dropped over 7% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 revenue of $ 42.7 million, weaker than consensus of $ 43.3 million, and said it is “prudent to take immediate actions to lower our expense structure.”

Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp. (TNXP +34.54%) tumbled 16% in after-hours trading after it announce a proposed public offering of common stock, although no size was given.

Jun E-mini S&Ps (ESM17 -0.13%) this morning are down -3.00 points (-0.13%). Wednesday’s closes: S&P 500 +0.11%, Dow Jones -0.20%, Nasdaq +0.43%. The S&P 500 on Wednesday closed higher on strength in homebuilders after U.S. Feb pending home sales rose +5.5% m/m, stronger than expectations of +2.5% m/m and the largest monthly increase in 6-1/2 years. There was also strength in energy producing stocks after May WTI crude rose +2.36% to a 1-week high.

Jun 10-year T-notes (ZNM17 +0.09%) this morning are down -1.5 ticks. Wednesday’s closes: TYM7 +7.0, FVM7 +5.00. Jun 10-year T-notes on Wednesday closed higher on carry-over support from a rally in German bunds to a 3-week high after a Reuters report suggested that the ECB is trying to curb market rate-hike speculation. T-notes prices also boosted by decent demand for the Treasury’s $ 28 billion 7-year T-note auction that had a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.56, above the 12-auction average of 2.53.

The dollar index (DXY00 +0.06%) this morning is up +0.102 (+0.10%) at a 1-week high. EUR/USD (^EURUSD) is down -0.0025 (-0.23%) at a 1-week low and USD/JPY (^USDJPY) is up +0.05 (+0.05%). Wednesday’s closes: Dollar index +0.286 (+0.29%), EUR/USD -0.0048 (-0.44%), USD/JPY -0.11 (-0.10%). The dollar index on Wednesday rose to a 1-week high and settled higher on comments from Chicago Fed President Evans who said he supports two more interest rate increases this year. There was also weakness in EUR/USD which fell to a 1-week low after Reuters reported that ECB officials said their Mar 9 ECB meeting statement was over-interpreted and that the ECB does plan to make any guidance changes before Jun.

May WTI crude oil prices (CLK17 -0.14%) this morning are down -10 cents (-0.20%) and May gasoline (RBK17 -0.11%) is -0.0049 (-0.29%). Wednesday’s closes: May crude +1.14 (+2.36%), May gasoline +0.0370 (+2.26%). May crude oil and gasoline on Wednesday closed higher with May crude at a 1-week high and May gasoline at a 2-week high. Crude oil prices were boosted by the +866,999 bbl increase in EIA crude inventories (less than expectations of +2.0 million bbl), and the -3.75 million bbl decline in EIA gasoline inventories (a bigger decline than expectations of -2.0 million bbl). On the negative side was the +0.2% increase in U.S. crude production in the week of Mar 24 to a 13-1/2 month high of 9.147 million bpd.