Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Trader's highlight

DJI - NEW YORK, April 22 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks climbed on Monday as last week's sharp losses brought buyers back to the market and Microsoft Corp  shares jumped after an activist investor took a stake in the company.

The market's bounce followed the S&P 500's worst weekly loss since November and suggested to some market watchers that a much debated market correction has yet to arrive.

"It still seems like the bulls are buying the dips. Unless there is a fair amount of bad news, I think the market hangs in at these levels," said Uri Landesman, president of Platinum Partners in New York, who added he still expects the market to be "signficiantly lower" in six months.

The Dow Jones industrial average  rose 19.66 points, or 0.14 percent, to 14,567.17 at the close. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 7.25 points, or 0.47 percent, to 1,562.50. The Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 27.50 points, or 0.86 percent, to close at 3,233.55.

Last week's market decline came amid signs of slowing growth from China, which also led to a steep drop in commodity prices.

"A decent tech tape is lifting all boats today. I think they're flocking towards the ones you've already seen good numbers from. You're not going to get blindsided by something coming out, if you've already got the news," said Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles.

S&P 500 earnings growth is forecast at 2.2 percent for the first quarter, based on results from 21 percent of the companies and estimates for the rest, Thomson Reuters data showed. That is up from an April 1 forecast of 1.5 percent growth.


Oils - NEW YORK, April 22 (Reuters) - Brent crude futures rose for a third straight session to top $100 a barrel on Monday, lifted by gains in the U.S. stock market.

Trading was choppy, with oil prices closely tracking the U.S. equity market, which moved into positive territory in the afternoon on the back of a one percent gain in Microsoft shares. Earlier, pressure had come from disappointing corporate earnings and lower-than-expected existing home sales. 

Brent June crude futures rose 74 cents to close at $100.39 a barrel, down from a high of $101.04. The May U.S. contract, which expired Monday, was up 75 cents to $88.76 after reaching a high of $89.13.

The three days of gains in oil came after a sharp sell off earlier in the month. Brent has lost nearly 9 percent since the start of April on concerns about demand as growth slowed in the United States and China, the world's two largest oil consumers, while recession in Europe deepened.

A negative reading in the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago's national activity index released on Monday reinforced concerns about U.S. economic growth. That number had been expected to come in positive.


CBOT Soybean - April 22 (Reuters) - Soybean futures on the Chicago Board of Trade fell nearly 1 percent on Monday, weighed down by forecasts for U.S. planting weather to improve next week, turning warmer and drier, traders said.
  • New-crop November soybeans fell to a 10-month low at $11.94-1/2 before paring losses.
  • Chinese soy import data also pressured prices. China imported 3.841 million tonnes of soybeans in March, down 20.4 percent from a year earlier, Chinese customs data showed. China imported 3.307 million tonnes from the United States, down 12.2 percent.
  • CBOT soymeal and soyoil followed soybeans lower; declines in Malaysian palmoil values added to bearish sentiment.
  • Firm cash markets helped front-month May soybeans gain relative to July on spreads. The inverted May/July spread peaked at 55 cents, premium May.
  • Basis bids for soybeans shipped by barge to the U.S. Gulf Coast were steady to firm early on Monday as portions of Midwest rivers were closed to barge traffic due to high water and flooding, limiting supplies available to Gulf exporters.
  • Country offerings of soybeans were extremely thin, lifting domestic crusher bids to historic highs.
  • USDA reported export inspections of U.S. soybeans in the latest week at 4.970 million bushels, below a range of trade estimates for 5 million to 10 million.
  • USDA said private exporters reported sales of 174,000 tonnes of U.S. soybeans to China for delivery in 2013/14.
* Wet and cold weather in the U.S. Midwest this week will further slow corn plantings while adding valuable soil moisture to drought-stricken regions, an agricultural meteorologist said on Monday.


BMD CPO - KUALA LUMPUR, April 22 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil dropped to a fresh four-month low on Monday, as volatility in commodities markets overall and losses in soybeans weighed, with investors also wary ahead of slowing export demand.

Global markets have faced turbulent trading over the past week as economic data from the United States and China sparked concerns that slowing growth could hurt demand for commodities, triggering a sell-off in crude oil and gold markets.

Palm, the most widely traded vegetable oil in the world, also faced pressure from sluggish export data which slipped about 5-6 percent in April 1-20 compared to a month ago, cargo surveyors.

"There's nothing wrong for market to be down today -- it was expected generally because of the soybean and crude oil prices, which indirectly affects Malaysian palm oil," said a trader with a foreign commodities brokerage in Kuala Lumpur.

"The market is quiet and uncertain at this level. A lot of buyers are staying on the sidelines for now. The local sentiment is okay, but not the global sentiment," he added.

Falling prices of soyoil, a close competitor of palm, could wean away demand from the latter.

The benchmark July contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange settled down 1.7 percent at 2,256 ringgit ($740) per tonne after going as low as 2,250 ringgit -- a level not seen since Dec. 14.

Total traded volumes were thin at 17,147 lots of 25 tonnes each, compared to the usual 25,000 lots.

Sluggish exports in the remaining days of April could prevent end-stocks from easing, traders say, and further hurt prices, which have lost 7.4 percent so far this year.

Palm oil stocks in Malaysia, the world's No.2 producer, stood at 2.17 million tonnes as of end-March after declining 11 percent from end-February's 2.44 million tonnes.

Oil futures steadied around $100 a barrel on Monday, retrieving only a fraction of the ground lost over the past three weeks due to worries about the world economy and the impact on fuel demand. 

In other vegetable oil markets, U.S. soyoil for July delivery  dropped nearly 1 percent in Asian trade. The most-active September soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodities Exchange tumbled nearly 3 percent.