Foreign Markets
Global stocks rallied, continuing Wall Street’s momentum into the second trading day of the week despite Japanese figures showing that the world’s second biggest economy slumped by a quarterly rate of 0.5% in the third quarter of the year, more than the previous estimate of 0.1%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 0.8% overnight to 8,395.87. In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was up modestly at 1.65% to 4,370.96, while Germany’s DAX gained 49.25 points, or 1.04%.
U.S. Futures
U.S. markets look to open slightly higher as futures were modestly in the green. Investors are awaiting word and final details of a $15 billion bridge loan by the government to the automotive industry. Dow futures were up 32 points to 8,907, while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 futures were up almost 0.5% to 910.10. The tech heavy NASDAQ was advancing 9.75 points 1,221.75.
Currencies and Commodities
Oil hovered around the $43.50 mark as equities continue to gain despite dismal economic data. Gold remains fairly calm at $770 an ounce as we haven’t seen a rush into the precious metal in a while. The dollar fell 0.5% to 92.41 yen while the euro was 0.8% lower at $1.2857. The pound lost more than 1% to $1.4758
Corporate News
FedEx Corp. stated annual profit may be as much as one-third lower than analysts expected because of a “significantly weaker” economy; with fiscal year earnings ending in May in a range of $3.50 to $4.75 a share, down from an earlier projection of $4.75 to $5.25
Dow Chemical (DOW) plans to lay off 11% of its global full-time workforce, or 5,000 positions, close 20 facilities and reduce its contractor workforce by 6,000.
Anheuser-Busch InBev announced it would cut around1,400 U.S. jobs , 6% of its U.S. work force to help save the world’s largest brewer at least $1.5 billion a year, just six weeks after the deal between the two beverage companies became final.
Sony (SNE) is slashing 8,000 jobs, or 4% of its global work force, aiming to cut costs by $1.1 billion a year by the end of March 2010.
Economic News
Germany’s ZEW Center for European Economic Research said its index of investor and analyst expectations for Europe’s largest economy rose to minus 45.2 this month from minus 53.5 in November. Economists in a Bloomberg News survey expected a drop to minus 57.
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ICSC-Goldman Store Sales: Weekly measure of comparable store sales at major retail chains, published by the International Council of Shopping Centers. The figure accounts for roughly 10% of total retail sales.
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Pending Home Sales Index: A leading indicator of existing home sales for the month of August developed by The National Association of Realtors. This provides a gauge of not only the demand for housing, but general sentiment on the consumer front. People have to be feeling pretty comfortable and confident in their own financial position to buy a house and the ripple effect a housing purchase has throughout the economy.
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