Foreign Markets
Asian stocks were mixed in overnight trading. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 336.31 points, a 2.49% gain while the Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 0.08% to 7,917.51. In Europe, stocks were down in the red with the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index losing almost 2% so far in trading. The FTSE 100 of leading British shares fell 1%, while Germany’s DAX gained 120 points, or 2.63%.
U.S. Futures
As of 7:32 AM
After each index losing well over 2% yesterday, the markets are extremely cautious heading into the employment report due out at 8:30 AM. Dow futures are pointing to the downside, losing 54 points to 8,348, while S&P futures retreat almost 1% to 839.90. The NASDAQ is off 1.1% to 1,121.75 after losing over 3% yesterday.
Investors fled equities and headed into treasuries, with the yields on the 10 (2.55%) and 30 year (3.04%) government securities hitting 50 year lows.
Currencies and Commodities
After dropping nearly 7%, crude rose slightly, up 1.37% to $44.27 a barrel. Precious metals, once thought to be a safe haven for investors, are up 0.59% at $770, well off its 52 week high.
The euro traded at $1.2690, a gain of 0.68% for the greenback. The dollar buys you 92.16 yen, a 0.0867% decline overnight. The dollar gained another 5 basis points against the pound to $1.4673 as both the BOE and ECB sharply reduced interest rated yesterday.
Corporate News
AT&T Inc (T). DuPont and Viacom Inc (VIA). announced plans to lay off more than 15,000 workers.
Merck & Co. (MRK) forecasted lower profits and flat revenue in 2009, far below Wall Street expectations with management blaming the weak global economy, generic competition, slower sales of key products and restructuring charges.
The Big Three were on Capitol Hill yesterday pleading their case for a second chance at a federal bailout. As it stands now, the Senate doesn’t have the votes and a structured bankruptcy is being circulated as a possible option.
Economic News
8:30 AM
Employment Situation: The employment situation is a set of labor market indicators. The unemployment rate measures the number of unemployed as a percentage of the labor force. Nonfarm payroll employment counts the number of paid employees working part-time or full-time in the nation’s business and government establishments. The average workweek reflects the number of hours worked in the nonfarm sector. Average hourly earnings reveal the basic hourly rate for major industries as indicated in nonfarm payrolls.
The consensus unemployment rate as of November is 6.7%, with a loss of 300,000 since October.
3:00 PM
Consumer Credit: Measures the value of consumer credit outstanding. Changes in consumer credit indicate the state of the consumer’s finances and can forecast their future spending patterns. This will be an interesting figure to see, with over 9% of American homeowners behind on their mortgage payments or in foreclosure, it’s only a matter of time before credit is defaulted upon. The consensus for October is an increase of $2.4 billion. Credit rose 6.9 billion in September.
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