Here's A 10-Second Guide To What Traders Are Talking About This Morning
Good Morning! US futures are starting slightly weaker, marked off 10bp and near lows of the overnight - Focus will remain in Smallcaps/Momentum, after the Russell's sharp underperformance yesterday. Tencent (#1 Weight in SOCL) said Q1 net profit jumped 60% after the Hong Kong close - but TWTR and FB are both in the red, and the IWM is offered lower this AM. In Europe, EU stocks holding near 6Y highs as we get more dovish language surrounding the June meeting from ECB officials. Ukraine Stress is muted overnight, with the Micex losing small after it's longest winning streak of 2014. In Asia, while China was quiet - Chatter that Beijing was encouraging lenders to accelerate the processing of mortgages helped Hong Kong jump 1%. Sony's loss weighed on the Nikkei, and futures are marked 50bp lower post-close. India continues it's upward trajectory into the election results, running 7% in the last week. Flaring Tensions in the South China Sea didn't weigh on Philippine or Vietnam markets overnight - Aussie lost small, weighed down by Healthcare on a rollout of a "GP tax" - a A$7 charge for visiting doctors.
The Bundesbank comments continue to move people towards Sovereign Debt - Germany 10YY is off 3bp and making new 10+month lows, and US 10YY made a fresh 2014 low overnight. Euro is mixed - caught between stronger German inflation and weaker EU IP - and the Yen is jumping on hawkish comments from a ex-BoJ official, propelling the DXY back over the 80 level - a headwind for commodities. That said, Gold is up 70bp, and back over the 200dma - while Silver is jumping 1.3% as London ends the Silver Fixing. The energy complex is higher, with WTI popping on a Cushing inventory draw overnight. We have a handful of Catalysts today - with US CPI at 8:30, we get DOE data for Crude and ECB's Weidmann Speaks at 10:30, and the Month's smallest POMO at 11. Watch the Homebuilders - the Watt speech yesterday ignited the ITB back over the 200dma, Most of the major players will be speaking at the JPM Homebuilder conference today.