Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Before the open
Pre-market "color" from securities firm CL King.
• Fed Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard says the Fed could start to normalize monetary policy before the major geopolitical events are over, but argued none should become “macroeconomic shocks”
• Fed Reserve Bank of Chicago and Bank of Boston Presidents come out in favor of completing QE2 due to low core inflation and high unemployment
• Britain’s GDP fell 0.5% for the last quarter of 2010 underscoring a sluggish recovery
• US and UK officials met with Libya’s opposition leader ahead of Thursday’s conference in London to discuss the allies military intervention in Libya
• ICSC Retail Store Sales reported at +0.2% W/W vs. -0.1% prior; 2.6% Y/Y vs. +3% last week; rough weather, high gas prices, and Easter’s shift to late April made it a tough month for retailers
• Due at 9:00 am – S&P/CaseShiller Home Price Index
• Due at 10:00 am – Consumer Confidence
U.S. Pre-market
S&P Futures +0.21%
Dow Futures +0.18%
Futures continue to lack decisive direction as investors wait the large amount of economic news released throughout this week
Overseas Markets
European markets fall, led by declines in bank stocks that will need to raise capital ahead of stress tests; London -0.10%, Paris -0.26%, Frankfurt -0.52%
Despite better than expected earnings in Asia and Hong Kong, markets fell on concerns over Japan’s economic growth; Japan -0.21%, Hong Kong -0.03%, China -0.87%
Currencies
Yen at 82.1795
Euro at 1.4068
CAD$ at 0.9765
Both the Euro and Dollar strengthen against the Yen as the ECB and Fed are expected to raise interest rates soon while the Bank of Japan is expected to keep rates unchanged
U.S. Treasuries
10yr at 3.46%, up 3bps
30yr at 4.52%, up 3bps
Treasuries continue to fall as investors anticipate a normalizing of Fed Reserve monetary policy after QE2
Oil
Crude down $0.88 to $103.10
Oil drops again on hopes of a resolution in Libya and belief that the Japanese nuclear crisis and European sovereign debt problems will lessen demand
2 Comments:
By 
, at
Tue Mar 29, 10:43:00 AM:
Interesting.
How did Mr. Obama's speech affect anything?
It looks as if it only took 2 years for him to be utterly impotent.
And how did his bizarre partisan demeaning of the success in Iraq help his personal stature?
Do Democrats really believe this nonsense? Do they think Americans are just that stupid?
It reminds one of when Hillary Clinton tried to lie about 'dodging sniper fire'.
They dug a ditch of blaming the US, opposing US military force, bashing GW for leading the world towards freedom-democracy, now they are stuck in a lie.
War is okay if you are a Democrat with a Democrat bombing away.
By 
Georg Felis, at
Wed Mar 30, 12:23:00 AM:
So when do you think the stock market will plunge again, once the Fed quits stuffing money into it?
