Selling pressure eased overnight and equity markets have bounced back a bit this morning. In Asia Pacific trading, the Hang Seng rebounded 0.75%, while in Europe, the Dax is up 0.75% and the FTSE is up 0.3%. US index futures are mixed this morning. Dow futures are down 0.2% adding to yesterday’s 0.25% loss. NASDAQ Futures are up 0.9%, clawing back yesterday’s 0.6% loss.
The US 10-year treasury note yield is holding steady near 4.10%. Yesterday’s better than expected US retail sales, industrial production and NAHB Housing Market Index all helped to offset weaker than expected data out of China. Today, US housing starts (1.460M vs street 1.426M), weekly initial jobless claims (187K vs street 207K) were better than expected, but the Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index ( -10.6 vs street -7.0) was worse than expected.
Energy and metals action is mixed today with Natural Gas down 2.75%, Gold up 0.4%, US Crude Oil up 0.1% and Copper down 0.3%. Last night API weekly crude oil inventories showed a small build. Weekly EIA natural gas inventories are due at 10:30 am EST today, followed by weekly DOE oil inventories at 11:00 am. Tomorrow brings retail sales reports for Canada and the UK.
Earnings reports for today and tomorrow are mainly concentrated in the US regional banking sector. This morning M&T Bank, Keycorp, and Northern Trust all posted disappointing results. The biggest disappointment, however, appears to have come from credit card provider Discover Financial ($1.54 vs street $2.49) with its shares diving 10.8% in premarket trading.