Reporting news-flow today includes US Personal Income, PCE Defator, Composite and Services PMI, University of Michigan Sentiment, UK Chancellor’s Budget Statement and comments from ECB’s Constancio.
Asian equity markets traded mostly lower following Wall Streets as geopolitical uncertainty affected risk sentiment.
BoJ minutes said that most of BoJ members saw underlying inflation trend was improving, while a few members were pessimistic of achieving the 2% target in the BoJ timeframe. Members also said that exports have been more or less flat due to the slowdown in emerging economies particularly China and marginal impact of QQE is diminishing. (Reuters / Bloomberg)
In the UK, BoE’s Broadbent said that weak credit growth in the UK is extremely striking and he sees faster implied decline in government deficit over the next 2-3 years. (Daily Mail)
FTSE 100 Equity news:
Shire – preparing a new bid for Baxalta according to sources. (Reuters)
Carnival (L:CCL) – Announced a $1Bn stock repurchase program. (Bloomberg)
RBS (L:RBS) – have been investigated by the US attorney on their loan securities. (NY Post)
Shell (L:RDSa) – Qatar Investment Authority is said to approve the acquisition of BG Group (L:BG). (Times)
BAE Systems (L:BAES) – have been chosen to develop Marine combat vehicles b the Marine Corps, with the winner expected to receive contracts worth $1.1Bn. (Bloomberg)
Tesco (L:TSCO) – Drivers and warehouse staff in Doncaster and Belfast are threatening strikes, after Tesco froze their pay in order to aid the balance sheet. (Bloomberg)
DAX Equity News:
Deutsche Bank (DE:DBKGn) – is said to reduce 25% of jobs in private and corporate banking operations. In addition, is to pay $31mn to end the Swiss banking investigation and Deutsche Bank’s Korean units will also pay KRW 28.1bln damages settlement regarding the 2010 share sale lawsuit. (Bloomberg)
CAC News:
EDF (PA:EDF) – could make an offer for Areva within the next two weeks, however they could face competition from Mitsubishi Heavy according to sources. (Bloomberg)
Danone – CEO says tat all of its business are currently growing and are showing growth of 7-10%. (Bloomberg)
In the US the S&P500 and Dow Jones outperformed after gains seen in the energy sector due to geopolitical uncertainty in Turkey.
Fed discount rate minutes showed that 9/12 regional banks want an increased discount rate compared to 8 at the prior month. (Bloomberg)
WTI Crude Oil Futures retreated back below $43 following the large build on US API crude inventories. US API Crude Oil Inventories (Nov. 20) W/W 2600K (Prev. -482k) (Reuters)