By Stephen Kirkland & Jae Hur - Mar 26, 2013 3:01 PM GMT+0400
U.S. stock-index (SXXP) futures and copper rose before reports likely to show American durable-goods orders increased and new-house sales remained near a four-year high. Treasuries fell while Italian and Spanish bonds rallied.
Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures advanced 0.3 percent at 7 a.m. in New York, and the Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed 0.2 percent. Copper added 0.2 percent and oil gained 0.5 percent.Italy’s 10-year bond yield slid seven basis points to 4.54 percent and Spain’s dropped five basis points to 4.91 percent. The rate on 10-year Treasury notes rose one basis point to 1.93 percent, while Germany’s bund yield added three basis points to 1.36 percent.
Traders work at the New York Stock Exchange in New York. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg
March 25 (Bloomberg) -- Gina Martin Adams, an equity strategist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC, talks about the outlook for U.S. stocks, Federal Reserve monetary policy and her investment strategy. She speaks with Trish Regan, Adam Johnson and Matt Miller on Bloomberg Television's "Street Smart." (Source: Bloomberg)
March 22 (Bloomberg) -- Simon Fludgate, head of operational due diligence at Aksia LLC, a New York-based adviser to hedge-fund investors, talks about Bank of Japan monetary policy and the implications for financial markets. BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said yesterday he’s confident in achieving a 2 percent inflation target, rebutting doubters who predict his efforts will fail as he prepares to strengthen monetary stimulus. Fludgate speaks from Tokyo with Rishaad Salamat on Bloomberg Television's "On the Move." (Source: Bloomberg)
March 21 (Bloomberg) -- Takuji Okubo, chief economist at Japan Macro Advisors who formerly worked at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., talks about his expectations for Bank of Japan monetary policy. He also discusses the nation's economic outlook with Susan Li on Bloomberg Television's "First Up." (Source: Bloomberg)
U.S. durable-goods orders probably increased in February by the most in five months, while sales of new homes posted the best back-to-back performance in four years, economists said before reports today. Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who heads the group of euro-area finance ministers, said in a statement yesterday aid programs are “tailor-made,” after earlier indicating the Cypriot bank-recapitalization plan may be replicated elsewhere.
“The overall trend continues to show improvement for the U.S. despite some of the fiscal challenges,” Henk Potts, who helps oversee $282 billion as an equity strategist at Barclays Plc inLondon, said in a phone interview. “Markets don’t go up in a straight line, and there is potential for pullbacks, but we still believe the fundamentals are very supportive.”
Durable Goods
S&P 500 futures climbed, indicating the equity benchmark will rebound from yesterday’s decline. The Commerce Department report at 8:30 a.m. in Washington will probably reveal thatorders for goods intended to last for at least three years jumped 3.9 percent in February, their biggest increase since September.
A separate release at 9 a.m. New York time will show thathouse prices in 20 American cities advanced 7.9 percent in the 12 months through January, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. That would be the S&P/Case-Shiller index’s largest increase since June 2006.
At 10 a.m., the Commerce Department may say new homes sold at a 420,000 annual pace last month after a 437,000 rate in January, according to the median of 78 economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
Three stocks gained for every two that declined in the Stoxx 600. A gauge of telecommunications companies dropped as Telefonica SA slipped 3.6 percent when trading resumed after a suspension. The Spanish mobile-phone operator is selling 990 million euros of treasury stock to reduce its debt. Telecom Italia SpA dropped 5.2 percent as Barclays Plc and Bank of America Corp. downgraded the stock.
Earnings Rise
Celesio AG gained 2.5 percent after the German drug wholesaler reported that earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization climbed in 2012.
Copper increased to $7,647.25 a metric ton. The U.S. is the biggest buyer of the metal afterChina. Nickel and aluminum rose 0.2 percent. West Texas Intermediate oil advanced to $95.44 a barrel. U.S. natural gas futures gained for a first day in five, rising 1 percent on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The futures have advanced 16 percent this year.
The advance on Italian bonds reversed most of yesterday’s decline. European Central Bank executive board member Benoit Coeure said today the institution will do everything it can within the terms of its mandate to preserve the euro.
The currency strengthened 0.2 percent to $1.2872 and 0.3 percent versus the yen.
The yield on U.S. two-year notes was at 0.25 percent before a sale of $35 billion of 2015 securities today, the first of three note auctions this week totaling $99 billion.
Italian borrowing costs dropped at the sale of 8.5 billion euros ($10.9 billion) six-month bills today. The rate decreased to 0.831 percent, from 1.237 percent at an auction of similar- maturity debt Feb. 26.
Berlusconi Meeting
Democratic Party leader Pier Luigi Bersani has two days left to overcome a shortfall of support in parliament, after President Giorgio Napolitano gave him a mandate on March 22 to try to form a government. Bersani will meet adversary Silvio Berlusconi’s deputies at the People of Liberty party today.
“With the political risk in Italy continuing, it will be hard for the euro to make any headway,” said Yuki Sakasai, a foreign-exchange strategist at Barclays Plc in New York.
The MSCI Emerging Markets Index added 0.3 percent, gaining for a second day as benchmark gauges in Hungary, Thailand and the Philippines gained at least 1 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.3 percent, the most in a week, after the China Securities Journal said many banks started to control the scale of loans for property development.
To contact the reporters on this story: Stephen Kirkland in London at skirkland@bloomberg.net; Jae Hur in Tokyo at jhur1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Justin Carrigan at jcarrigan@bloomberg.net;
