LONDON (SHARECAST) - -Fed may adjust size of monthly purchases –Minutes
-Most members FOMC thought risks of QE3 manageable -Minutes
-Numerical thresholds for monetary policy are a possibility -Minutes
Dow Jones Industrial: 0.57%
Nasdaq Comp.: 0.44%
S&P 500: 0.69%
The main Wall Street indices are now registering modest gains. This ahead of tomorrow’s monthly employment report and following "as-expected" policy decisions, this afternoon, from the Bank of England (BoE) and the European Central Bank (ECB).
As regards the minutes of the Fed’s last policy meeting, these contained a detailed discussion of the perceived merits (or otherwise) of carrying out a third round of quantitative easing. A few FOMC participants expressed “scepticism” that the program could help, while several thought the purchases could “complicate the committee’s efforts to withdraw monetary policy accommodation when it eventually became appropriate to do so.”
Bullish options trading lends a helping handBy sectors Financials and Energy are in the lead on the S&P 500 while out on the broader markets the best performers now are: Coal (5.34%), Platinum (4.12%) and Mortgage Finance (3.93%).
Retailers are also doing well after data showed that September like-for-like sales came in ahead of estimates.
Sprint Nextel is reportedly in the early stages of evaluating whether it should make a counter offer for MetroPCS Communications to top Deutsche Telekom AG’s bid to combine it with T-Mobile USA, said three people familiar with the offer.
Some traders pointed to a bullish bet on the S&P 500 in the options market as helping to fuel today’s rally. One investor bought 11,000 calls expiring tomorrow to buy the index at 1,465, 1 percent above yesterday’s closing level, Bloomberg reports. ‘In-line’ macro dataInitial jobless claims rose by 4,000 last week to 367,000 (Consensus: 370,000), up from an upwardly revised 363,000 the week before (Preliminary: 359,000). The four-week moving average held steady at 375,000.
“The fact that claims were more or less steady leads us to believe that the special factors surrounding Tropical Storm Isaac that propelled jobless claim applications higher during the weeks ending September 8 and 15 have passed through the data. Excluding these weeks, jobless claims data show little momentum in either direction and continue to signal that labor market conditions have been broadly unchanged in recent months,” said analyst Michael Gapen from Barclays Research.
All eyes will now be on tomorrow’s monthly jobs report from the Labor Department. Non-farm payrolls are expected to have increased by 111,000 last month, up from the previous gain of 96,000. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate is forecast to rise to 8.2% from 8.1%.
Factory orders fell at a 5.2% month-on-month clip in August (Consensus: -5.8%).
Energy quotes bounce back sharply
10 year US Treasuries are now falling by 16/32 dollars, with yields at 1.67%.
Front month West Texas crude futures are moving higher by 3.90%, to 91.58 dollars on the NYMEX. Of interest, futures are now at technical support.
S&P 500 - Risers
Alpha Natural Res (ANR) $6.71 +6.51%
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) $66.53 +6.31%
CONSOL Energy Inc. (CNX) $31.25 +5.18%
Ryder System Inc. (R) $41.17 +5.00%
GameStop Corp. (GME) $22.33 +4.84%
United States Steel Corp. (X) $19.78 +4.77%
Frontier Communications Co. (FTR) $4.76 +4.73%
Peabody Energy Corp. (BTU) $22.82 +4.63%
Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) $13.62 +4.49%
Nabors Industries Ltd. (NBR) $14.24 +4.13%
S&P 500 - Fallers
Avery Dennison Corp. (AVY) $30.23 -3.88%
Kohls Corp. (KSS) $50.90 -2.57%
Dean Foods Co. (DF) $15.46 -2.46%
Sprint Nextel Corporation (S) $5.08 -2.31%
Teradata Corp. (TDC) $74.32 -2.29%
Tenet Healthcare Corp. (THC) $6.26 -2.11%
Ross Stores Inc. (ROST) $65.34 -2.02%
Metropcs Communications Inc. (PCS) $11.99 -2.00%
JDS Uniphase Corp. (JDSU) $11.52 -1.96%
Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (CMG) $295.01 -1.88%
Dow Jones I.A - Risers
Alcoa Inc. (AA) $9.06 +3.25%
Bank of America Corp. (BAC) $9.39 +3.02%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $41.81 +2.33%
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $47.18 +1.94%
American Express Co. (AXP) $58.44 +1.81%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $117.31 +1.00%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $86.08 +0.94%
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) $74.83 +0.85%
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $91.05 +0.77%
E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. (DD) $49.80 +0.73%
Dow Jones I.A - Fallers
Intel Corp. (INTC) $22.43 -0.51%
Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) $14.89 -0.17%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $61.74 -0.05%
Nasdaq 100 - Risers
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) $66.53 +6.31%
Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) $13.62 +4.49%
Apollo Group Inc. (APOL) $28.66 +3.24%
Fossil Inc. (FOSL) $87.71 +2.90%
O'Reilly Automotive Inc. (ORLY) $85.78 +2.77%
Sandisk Corp. (SNDK) $44.76 +2.59%
Life Technologies Corp. (LIFE) $50.48 +2.37%
Viacom Inc. Class B (VIAB) $55.57 +2.32%
Research in Motion Ltd. (RIMM) $8.24 +2.23%
Randgold Resources Ltd. Ads (GOLD) $125.18 +2.19%
Nasdaq 100 - Fallers
Ross Stores Inc. (ROST) $65.34 -2.02%
Autodesk Inc. (ADSK) $33.18 -1.78%
Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) $48.91 -1.17%
Wynn Resorts Ltd. (WYNN) $113.81 -0.92%
Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. (SIRI) $2.70 -0.92%
NetApp Inc. (NTAP) $31.13 -0.77%
Citrix Systems Inc. (CTXS) $74.67 -0.72%
Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD) $69.61 -0.55%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $22.43 -0.51%
Flextronics International Ltd. (FLEX) $6.00 -0.50%
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