Thursday, November 09, 2017

Friday Watch

Evening Headlines
Bloomberg:
  • Asia Shares Near Record But China Investors Aren't Celebrating. MSCI Inc.’s Asian stock benchmark is just a fraction away from clearing a peak that’s stood for a decade. Chinese investors should be so lucky. Gauges of the nation’s shares in both Shanghai and Hong Kong remain more than 40 percent below their highs reached in 2007, with the bursting of 2015’s bubble adding to woes. While Chinese stocks have rallied this year, they’ve been a poor long-term bet: the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index has fallen for six of the past nine years.
  • Asia Stocks Extend Declines; Dollar Holds Loss. Asian stocks fell as Japan equities extended losses after an abrupt turnaround on Thursday that sparked the biggest one-day swing in a year. The dollar held losses. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average and the Topix index fell as the yen held gains. The indexes suddenly retreated from their highest in about 25 years on Thursday as investors positioned for the Friday settlement of some derivatives. Stocks also fell in Sydney and Seoul while other markets in the region were mixed as some calm returned after the previous day’s gyrations. U.S. stocks dropped overnight after the Senate revealed that its tax plan would delay cuts to the corporate rate until 2019. The Nikkei 225 fell 0.9 percent as of 10:47 a.m. in Tokyo. The Topix lost 0.7 percent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 0.4 percent and South Korea’s Kospi index was down 0.2 percent. The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong was down 0.2 percent, and the Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.4 percent.
  • Hollywood Sexual Abuse Claims Prompt Creation of Special Task Force. The Los Angeles district attorney has created a special task force to handle the deluge of sexual abuse claims coming out of the entertainment industry. Since the New York Times last month published a story about allegations of sexual harassment and assault by movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, numerous big names in Hollywood have been accused of sexual improprieties, including actor Kevin Spacey and comedian Louis C.K.
Wall Street Journal:
CNBC:
Business Insider: 
Night Trading 
  • Asian equity indices are -.5% to unch. on average.
  • Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 79.50 +1.5 basis points. 
  • Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 16.0 +.25 basis point.
  • Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 72.49 -.01%.
  • S&P 500 futures -.08%.
  • NASDAQ 100 futures -.07%.
Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate

  • (MT)/.72
  • (JCP)/-.43
Economic Releases 
10:00 am EST
  • Preliminary Univ. of Mich. Consumer Sentiment for November is estimated to rise to 100.9 versus 100.7 in October.
Upcoming Splits
  • None of note
Other Potential Market Movers
  • The China Money Supply report and the (GWW) analyst meeting could also impact trading today.
BOTTOM LINE:  Asian indices are mostly lower, weighed down by industrial and financial shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open mixed and to rally into the afternoon, finishing modestly higher.  The Portfolio is 75% net long heading into the day.

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