Eagle River, WI 10/11/2011 (PennyPayDay) – The main US equity benchmarks are now rising slightly (Dow Jones: 1, Nasdaq Comp.: 21, S&P 500: 4), following yesterday´s strong bounce and on the heels of some uncertainty as regards the future of the EFSF in the Eurozone. There is considerable ‘market chatter’ as regards the Presidential elections next year in the US and the looming start of the earnings season, tonight, with Alcoa´s latest quarterly earnings. Significantly perhaps, some well know commentators are of the opinion that weak results have already been discounted by financial markets.
Also worth pointing out, as part of the 'backdrop', the decision today by the central bank of Indonesia to cuts its key rate, joining other emerging market monetary authorities which have done so recently and others which are expected to do so. That, at least, is what some commentators have been indicating of late.
On the company front it is corporate activity which is drawing the most attention.
Thus, Samson Investment is said to be contemplating a $10bn bid, reports The Wall Street Journal, while 99 cents could be the target of a $1.6bn, Reuters says.
Asset manager Franklin Resources is down sharply after reporting a decline in assets under management to $659.9bn at the end of September from $716.4 bn in August.
Dollar Thrifty will buy back $400m of its own shares; negotiations to sell to Hertz Global has fallen through.
Goldman Sachs has upgraded General Mills to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’. Maquarie has downgraded Conoco Philips to ‘underweight’ from ‘neutral’.
IBM will acquire Platform Computing for an undisclosed amount.
MACROECONOMY
The NFIB small business confidence index rose 0.8 to 88.9 in September.
OTHER MARKETS
Front month West Texas crude futures are now falling by 0.62% to the $84.88/barrel mark in NYMEX trading.
10 year US Treasuries are now falling 28/32 dollars with yields at 2.17%.
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