U.S. Stock Futures Little Changed as Jobless Claims Drop
By Jonathan Morgan - Sep 12, 2013 3:36 PM
U.S. stock-index futures were little changed, after seven days of gains for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as investors weighed an unexpected drop in jobless claims to gauge the Federal Reserve’s next move on stimulus.
Facebook (FB) Inc. rose 1.3 percent after the owner of the world’s largest social network rallied to all-time high yesterday. Pandora Media Inc. jumped 5.3 percent after naming digital-advertising veteran Brian McAndrews as its new chief executive officer. Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX) followed the precious metal lower.
Futures on the S&P 500 expiring this month dropped 0.1 percent to 1,687.2 at 8:34 a.m. in New York. Contracts on the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 5 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 15,325.
“The sense is that the U.S. economy is not sufficiently strong to favor an immediate taper,” Jeremy Batstone-Carr, head of research at Charles Stanley Group Plc in London, said in a telephone interview. “We are in for a comparatively quiet session after a recent sharp reduction in levels of volatility as investors eye a new all-time high in U.S. equities.”
Investors have been scrutinizing data to determine whether the economy is strong enough for the Fed to pare back its record stimulus following its Sept. 17-18 meeting.
A report today showed jobless claims in the U.S. declined last week to the lowest level since April 2006 as upgrades to computer systems in two states caused those employment agencies to report fewer applications.
First-time claims for unemployment insurance fell by 31,000 to 292,000 in the week ended Sept. 7, which also included the Labor Day holiday, according to Labor Department data released today in Washington. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey called for 330,000 applications.
Stimulus Bets
Economists estimate the Fed this month will taper its monthly bond buying by $10 billion, to $75 billion, according to the median of 34 responses in a Bloomberg News survey. The stimulus has helped the S&P 500 rally as much as 153 percent since the beginning of the bull market in March 2009.
Speculation about stimulus reductions has whipsawed stocks since May, when Chairman Ben S. Bernanke first indicated cuts could start this year. The S&P 500 tumbled 5.8 percent from a record high on May 21 through June 24. It rebounded 8.7 percent to close at its latest all-time high of 1,709.67 on Aug. 2. The gauge then slumped as much as 4.6 percent before the current rally brought it back to within 1.2 percent of the record and above the May 21 peak.
Volatility Gauge
The CBOE Volatility Index, the gauge of S&P 500 (SPX) options prices known as the VIX, has tumbled 19 percent in September after rallying 26 percent in August, the biggest monthly gain since May 2012. The index moves in the opposite direction to the S&P 500 about 80 percent of the time.
Facebook gained 1.3 percent to $45.64. The stock yesterday advanced 3.3 percent to $45.04, a record close that also surpassed the intraday high of $45 on the stock’s first public trading day in May 2012.
Pandora Media added 5.3 percent to $22.51. The biggest online radio service hired McAndrews in a push to lift revenue while fending off competition from Apple Inc. The executive was also named chairman and president, succeeding Joe Kennedy.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (VRTX), a developer of small-molecule pharmaceuticals, rose 2 percent to $81.44, and Ametek Inc. (AME), a manufacturer of electronic instruments, added 1.1 percent to $45. S&P Dow Jones Indices said the two companies will join the S&P 500, replacing Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and SAIC Inc.
AMD dropped 2.6 percent to $3.72 and SAIC fell less than 0.1 percent to $14.75.
Gold, Netflix
Barrick Gold, the largest miner of the metal, slipped 2.6 percent to $18.15 in early New York trading as gold dropped 2 percent to its lowest price since Aug. 15.
Netflix Inc. (NFLX), the mail-order and streaming video service, fell 1.8 percent to $302.60 in pre-market trading in New York. Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to equal weight, a rating similar to neutral, from overweight. Netflix’s success in producing original content has been factored into the price, limiting the potential for further gains, the brokerage said.
Stocks will continue to rally as the bull market in equities moves into a new phase driven by earnings growth rather than expanding valuations, according to strategists at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Equities will produce more moderate returns with lower volatility in the second phase of the bull market, according to Peter Oppenheimer, Goldman’s chief global equity strategist, who reiterated his bullish stance on stocks. Oppenheimer said in a March 2012 report that the prospects for returns from equities versus bonds “are as good as they have been in a generation.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Morgan in Frankfurt at jmorgan157@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Rummer at arummer@bloomberg.net
U.S. Stock Futures Little Changed as Jobless Claims Drop
By Jonathan Morgan - Sep 12, 2013 3:36 PM
U.S. stock-index futures were little changed, after seven days of gains for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as investors weighed an unexpected drop in jobless claims to gauge the Federal Reserve’s next move on stimulus.
Facebook (FB) Inc. rose 1.3 percent after the owner of the world’s largest social network rallied to all-time high yesterday. Pandora Media Inc. jumped 5.3 percent after naming digital-advertising veteran Brian McAndrews as its new chief executive officer. Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX) followed the precious metal lower.
Futures on the S&P 500 expiring this month dropped 0.1 percent to 1,687.2 at 8:34 a.m. in New York. Contracts on the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 5 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 15,325.
“The sense is that the U.S. economy is not sufficiently strong to favor an immediate taper,” Jeremy Batstone-Carr, head of research at Charles Stanley Group Plc in London, said in a telephone interview. “We are in for a comparatively quiet session after a recent sharp reduction in levels of volatility as investors eye a new all-time high in U.S. equities.”
Investors have been scrutinizing data to determine whether the economy is strong enough for the Fed to pare back its record stimulus following its Sept. 17-18 meeting.
A report today showed jobless claims in the U.S. declined last week to the lowest level since April 2006 as upgrades to computer systems in two states caused those employment agencies to report fewer applications.
First-time claims for unemployment insurance fell by 31,000 to 292,000 in the week ended Sept. 7, which also included the Labor Day holiday, according to Labor Department data released today in Washington. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey called for 330,000 applications.
Stimulus Bets
Economists estimate the Fed this month will taper its monthly bond buying by $10 billion, to $75 billion, according to the median of 34 responses in a Bloomberg News survey. The stimulus has helped the S&P 500 rally as much as 153 percent since the beginning of the bull market in March 2009.
Speculation about stimulus reductions has whipsawed stocks since May, when Chairman Ben S. Bernanke first indicated cuts could start this year. The S&P 500 tumbled 5.8 percent from a record high on May 21 through June 24. It rebounded 8.7 percent to close at its latest all-time high of 1,709.67 on Aug. 2. The gauge then slumped as much as 4.6 percent before the current rally brought it back to within 1.2 percent of the record and above the May 21 peak.
Volatility Gauge
The CBOE Volatility Index, the gauge of S&P 500 (SPX) options prices known as the VIX, has tumbled 19 percent in September after rallying 26 percent in August, the biggest monthly gain since May 2012. The index moves in the opposite direction to the S&P 500 about 80 percent of the time.
Facebook gained 1.3 percent to $45.64. The stock yesterday advanced 3.3 percent to $45.04, a record close that also surpassed the intraday high of $45 on the stock’s first public trading day in May 2012.
Pandora Media added 5.3 percent to $22.51. The biggest online radio service hired McAndrews in a push to lift revenue while fending off competition from Apple Inc. The executive was also named chairman and president, succeeding Joe Kennedy.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (VRTX), a developer of small-molecule pharmaceuticals, rose 2 percent to $81.44, and Ametek Inc. (AME), a manufacturer of electronic instruments, added 1.1 percent to $45. S&P Dow Jones Indices said the two companies will join the S&P 500, replacing Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and SAIC Inc.
AMD dropped 2.6 percent to $3.72 and SAIC fell less than 0.1 percent to $14.75.
Gold, Netflix
Barrick Gold, the largest miner of the metal, slipped 2.6 percent to $18.15 in early New York trading as gold dropped 2 percent to its lowest price since Aug. 15.
Netflix Inc. (NFLX), the mail-order and streaming video service, fell 1.8 percent to $302.60 in pre-market trading in New York. Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to equal weight, a rating similar to neutral, from overweight. Netflix’s success in producing original content has been factored into the price, limiting the potential for further gains, the brokerage said.
Stocks will continue to rally as the bull market in equities moves into a new phase driven by earnings growth rather than expanding valuations, according to strategists at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Equities will produce more moderate returns with lower volatility in the second phase of the bull market, according to Peter Oppenheimer, Goldman’s chief global equity strategist, who reiterated his bullish stance on stocks. Oppenheimer said in a March 2012 report that the prospects for returns from equities versus bonds “are as good as they have been in a generation.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Morgan in Frankfurt at jmorgan157@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Rummer at arummer@bloomberg.net