Good morning. Here's what you need to know.
- Asian markets rallied in overnight trade, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng advancing 1.7 percent. Markets in Europe are rising and U.S. futures point to a positive open.
- Spain was forced to pay sharply higher borrowing costs when issuing €2.981 billion of medium and long-term debt today, as demand plunged. The country issued two- and five-year bonds at steep 5.3 and 6.54 percent yields.
- France secured record low rates at auction this morning. The country issued €8.958 billion worth of medium term debt. Yields on the five-year fell to 0.86 percent.
- U.K. retail sales climbed just 0.1 percent sequentially in June, below expectations for a 0.6 percent gain. Weather was blamed for poor food sales. Meanwhile, Italian industrial orders recovered in May, rising 1.7 percent from a month earlier. International orders for Italian goods advanced 2 percent.
- Crop prices hit record highs today, as the U.S. drought rages on. Corn topped $8.10 a bushel for the first time, while benchmark soybeans now trade at $17.12.
- The ongoing LIBOR investigation is now targeting four of Europe's largest banks, the Financial Times reports. Credit Agricole, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, and Societe Generale are all being investigated for ties to Barclay's euroswaps trader at the center of the probe
- Sales at IBM missed expectations yesterday, falling three percent during the second quarter to $25.78 billion. IBM blamed weakness in Europe and sluggish hardware sales for the declines. However, the company reported better-than-expected bottom line results, earning $3.51 per share.
- Sales of Nokia's flagship phone, the Lumia, grew to 4 million units in the second quarter. However the company's net loss widened to €1.41 billion as revenue fell 19 percent to €7.54 billion. That was slightly better than the €7.32 billion estimate.
- U.S. economic announcements kick off at 8:30 a.m. with initial jobless claims, which are expected to increase to 364,000. At 10:00 a.m., both the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing report and existing home sales will be released. The Philly Fed is expected to remain negative, at -8, while home sales improve 1.5 percent.
- Earnings on tap before the opening bell include Morgan Stanley, Verizon, and Travelers Co. Investment banking giant Morgan is expected to post earnings per share of $0.38. Consensus is for Dow components Verizon and Travelers to report earnings of $0.64 and $1.40, respectively.
没有评论:
发表评论