Daily News Report

Markets in a Flash
• Asian equity markets performed poorly overnight and closed down. Shanghai was down nearly 2% at the close.
• European equity markets are flat today after recovering from a small loss in morning trading.
• Commodities futures are all showing gains today. Oil is continuing its bullish run and is trading at $77.50 while gold is at $1214.30.
• The GBP is looking strong today and is making new 3 month highs against the USD.
• The EUR is gaining against the USD and is making new 2 month highs.
• US equity futures are showing slight rises suggesting a small rise in the equity markets at 0930ET.
News Focus
Profits at JP Morgan have risen 76%, this was announced on Thursday by the international banking group. EPS came in well ahead of expectation at $1.08 compared with analysts’ expectations of $0.72. These earnings have been due to loan losses being better than expected but still being above normal conditions and credit costs being lower meaning borrowing costs have been less significant.
The rate of growth of the Chinese economy has slowed in the second quarter. The growth rate for the country in Q1 was 11.9% this compares with the most recent figure for Q2 of 10.3%. This figure was expected to fall and Chinese officials are not worried as it may prevent the economy from overheating and provide a chance for new economic models to take effect.
Just Released
0830ET – Producer Price Index
PPI - M/M change
Previous -0.3 % Consensus -0.1 %
Consensus Range -0.5 % to 0.2 % Actual -0.5 %
After the Producer Price Index has fallen in the previous 2 months this figure continues the trend. The -0.5% figure means that prices are falling and they are falling faster than expected. This fall further than expected has been due to energy and food due to the core index coming in on consensus.
0830ET – Jobless Claims
New Claims - Level
Previous 454 K Consensus 445 K
Consensus Range 420 K to 460 K Actual 429 K
This jobless claims figure is better than consensus. The figure shows that less people have claimed joblessness. This may mean that the employment market is in better health than previously thought. This figure proves bullish for the markets.
Coming up Today
0915ET – Industrial production
Production - M/M change
Previous 1.2 % Consensus -0.2 %
Consensus Range -0.6 % to 0.2 %
This month’s figure is expected to show that industrial production fell in June after the previous month’s growth of 1.2%. The trend for the past year has been of positive monthly growth figures. Negative growth of 0.2% for a month will not damage the recovery of the industrial sector, but the fear is that this may be the start of a new trend. A higher that 0.2% figure will prove bullish for the markets as it will suggest the economy is in better health that expected.