Dallas Federal Reserve President James Bullard said the US central bank could begin to taper its bond buying program at its December meeting next week after Friday's US labor data showed marked improvement.
Bullard's comments on Monday added to growing speculation that the bank could cut back on its stimulus spending sooner than expected. Bullard, who has a vote at the FOMC said earlier that the Fed's taper would be closely tied to the US' payrolls figure, which came in surprisingly high last week.
Although the general consensus is that the bank will hold off on a taper until March, some analysts have begun to warm to the idea of a taper in December or January.
- Computer security firm, FireEye, has said it found evidence that Chinese hackers were spying on communications from five European nations ahead of September's G20 summit. The hackers were able to get into the nations' computer networks by sending emails to the ministries' staff containing tainted files. No evidence has been found which links the hackers to the Chinese government.
- Ukranian President Viktor Yanukovych called for talks between the Yanukovych's government and opposition leaders on Monday in an effort to de-escalate the growing tension. However the opposition rejected the idea, saying it was not willing to enter into talks until Yanukovych's government has been dismissed and police responsible for beating student protestors have been punished.
- Sysco announced that it is planning to buy US Foods for $3.5 billion. The deal will unite the two largest food distribution companies, which together garner nearly 27 percent of the market share.
- Eurozone finance ministers were hopeful that they will come to an agreement on the details of the region's banking union on Tuesday after talks on Monday resulted in a breakthrough on a resolution mechanism for failing banks. The ministers discussed setting up a system under which failing banks could be partially financed by banks from other EU countries. In order to move forward with this idea, the nations will have to sign a new treaty as the bloc's current legal rules wouldn't permit such a system.
Asian markets were moderately lower on Tuesday, the Japanese NIKKEI fell 0.25 percent and the South Korean KOSPI was down 0.35 percent. The Hang Seng index fell 0.19 percent, but China's Shenzhen composite was up 0.11 percent.
European Markets
European markets continued on a high note, the UK's FTSE was up 0.11 percent and the eurozone's STOXX 600 gained 0.29 percent. The German DAX was also higher, up 0.25 percent.
Energy futures were higher, Brent futures gained 0.31 percent and WTI futures were up 0.40 percent. Gold was up 0.83 percent and silver gained 1.19 percent. Industrial metals were up across the board with aluminum posting the largest gains, up 0.79 percent.
Currency markets were quiet on Tuesday morning, the euro was up 0.09 percent against the dollar and the pound gained 0.08 percent against the greenback. The dollar lost 0.16 percent to the yen and gained 0.31 percent against the Australian dollar.
Earnings
Notable earnings released on Monday included:
- Pep Boys- Manny, Moe & Jack (NYSE: PBY) reported third quarter EPS of $0.02 on revenue of $507.00 million, compared to last year's EPS of $0.12 on revenue of $509.61 million.
- Vail Resorts, Inc. MTN reported a first quarter loss of $2.04 on revenue of $123.40 million, compared to last year's loss of $1.70 on revenue of $166.35 million.
- ABM Industries Incorporated ABM reported fourth quarter EPS of $0.48 on revenue of $1.24 billion, compared to last year's EPS of $0.50 on revenue of $1.09 billion.
Stocks moving in the Premarket included:
- Transocean Ltd (NYSE: RIG) gained 0.30 percent in premarket trade after falling 1.29 percent over the past week
- Dow Chemical Co DOW fell 4.17 percent in premarket trade after rising 3.90 percent on Monday
- American Express Co. AXP lost 0.87 percent in premarket trade after climbing 1.35 percent over the past five days
- Carnival Corp CCL fell 0.62 percent in premarket trade after gaining 0.74 percent on Monday
Notable earnings expected on Tuesday include:
- Toll Brothers Inc. (NYSE: TOL) is expected to report fourth quarter EPS of $0.41 on revenue of $981.62 million, compared to last year's EPS of $2.35 on revenue of $632.83 million.
- H &R Block, Inc. HRB is expected to report a third quarter loss of $0.37 per share on revenue of $137.85 million, compared to last year's loss of $0.37 on revenue of $137.26 million.
- AutoZone, Inc. AZO is expected to report third quarter EPS of $6.29 on revenue of $2.11 billion, compared to last year's EPS of $5.41 on revenue of $1.99 billion.
Economics
Tuesday's economic calendar will be dominated with European releases including Italian GDP, Italian industrial production, French industrial production, and British trade balance data, manufacturing production and industrial production.
For a recap of Monday's market action, click here.
Tune into Benzinga’s pre-market info show with Dennis Dick and Joel Elconin here.
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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