Foreign Markets
Stocks in Asia fell overnight. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 1.0% to 7,924.24 as businesses reduced investment at the fastest pace in six years last quarter; the Hang Seng Index dropped 78.88 points, or 0.58%. In Europe, stocks advanced after the BOE slashed official interest rates by 1 percentage point, bringing the rate down to 2%, their lowest level since 1951. The FTSE 100 of leading British shares rose 0.36%, while Germany’s DAX gained 82.68 points, or 1.81%.
U.S. Futures
U.S. futures are retreating moderately this morning after the market had a triple digit swing in yesterday’s trading. Investors are on edge as we await more economic data. Dow futures are down 16 points to 8,563, NASDAQ futures rose 2.25 points, and the S&P 500 is at breakeven.
Currencies and Commodities
After pulling back most of the week, commodities continued in the red. Gold fell $1.10, to $7.69.40. Oil broke $46 a barrel in electronic trading, down $1 or 2.12%. The euro stands at $1.2626, a 0.71% rise for the greenback; while the pound fell another 1.26% against the dollar to $1.4597 on the BOE rate cut. The dollar dropped 0.45% to 92.87 yen.
Corporate News
Home Builder Toll Brother’s reported narrower 4th quarter losses. For the quarter ended Oct. 31, losses totaled $78.8 million, or 49 cents per share. That’s slightly better than the year-ago loss of $81.8 million, or 52 cents. Revenue fell to $698.9 million from $1.17 billion a year ago; analysts expected a loss of 46 cents per share on revenue of $681.4 million.
Economic News
Chain Store Sales: Monthly sales volumes from individual department, chain, discount, and apparel stores Chain store sales correspond with roughly 10 percent of retail sales. Chain store sales are an indicator of retail sales and consumer spending trends. The numbers look bad even though the figure will include Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.
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Jobless Claims: New unemployment claims for the week of November 29th, to show the number of individuals who filed for unemployment insurance for the first time. The fewer people filing for unemployment benefits, the more have jobs, the more income in the consumer’s pocket, as well as a forecast on the strength of the economy. The consensus is for an increase of 529K as the U.S. economy is officially in a recession on the backs of the unemployed.
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Factory orders: Represent the dollar level of new orders for both durable and nondurable goods. The consensus is for a decline of 2.8% for the month of October. There was a sharp decline in September, where there was a 2.7% decline compared to estimated of only a 0.7% drop.
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