##{"id":58948,"date":"2011-10-06T08:36:58","date_gmt":"2011-10-05T21:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fnarena.com\/index.php\/2011\/10\/06\/the-overnight-report-europe-embraces-progress\/"},"modified":"2011-10-06T08:36:58","modified_gmt":"2011-10-05T21:36:58","slug":"the-overnight-report-europe-embraces-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/2011\/10\/06\/the-overnight-report-europe-embraces-progress\/","title":{"rendered":"The Overnight Report: Europe Embraces Progress"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n\tBy Greg Peel<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe Dow rose 131 points or 1.2% while the S&amp;P gained 1.8% to 1144 and the <span class=\"scayt-misspell\">Nasdaq<\/span> added 2.3%.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tEuropean stock markets had already closed on Tuesday when a report came through that European finance ministers were looking to <span class=\"scayt-misspell\">recapitalise<\/span> the region&#039;s banks ahead of a more severe but orderly restructuring of Greek sovereign debt. Wall Street shot up in a heart beat on the news and last night European markets had their chance, with London&#039;s index rising 3%, France&#039;s 4% and Germany&#039;s 5%.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tAdding to optimism was a statement from German chancellor Angela Merkel last night in <span class=\"scayt-misspell\">favour<\/span> of bank <span class=\"scayt-misspell\">recapitalisation<\/span>. Little can be achieved in the <span class=\"scayt-misspell\">eurozone<\/span> without the support of the German government. Markets are now hoping that a plan will be unveiled at the next European Union summit to be held on October 17.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tMarkets are also likely to be further comforted when the three remaining parliaments &ndash; those of the Netherlands, Malta and Slovakia &ndash; pass the <span class=\"scayt-misspell\">EFSF<\/span> bill, finally ratifying its size and structure. There has been talk of Slovakia being against the idea, but one wonders whether the dirt-poor Slovaks can really see an advantage in seriously pissing off the entire world. Merkel subtly put a rocket up the three laggards last night, entreating them to get on with it.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tWall Street opened last night still reeling from Tuesday&#039;s late 350 point Dow rally and no doubt wondering what to do next. News that the September services PMI had fallen to 53.0 from 53.3 in August was not cork-popping stuff but the result still implies expansion in the sector which provides 80% of US output and that does not signal recession. Better news came in the form of the ADP private sector jobs result for August which showed a gain of 91,000 jobs compared to expectations of 75,000. Wall Street is now hoping for a better non-farm payrolls number for September, due tomorrow night, following August&#039;s disaster.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tGlobal services <span class=\"scayt-misspell\">PMIs<\/span> have rolled in over the last 24 hours, albeit China&#039;s was posted on Monday. It showed an increase to 59.3 from 57.6 which is a very solid and expansionary result, again calming fears of a rapid Chinese slowdown. Australia&#039;s was a little disappointing on a fall to 50.3 from 52.1 but at least it&#039;s still the right side of the line &ndash; just.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe UK liked its increase to 52.9 from 51.1 but the wet blanket was the <span class=\"scayt-misspell\">eurozone<\/span>, which saw a fall to 48.8 from 51.5. But really, are we shocked? The <span class=\"scayt-misspell\">eurozone<\/span> also publishes a &ldquo;composite&rdquo; PMI which collates all of the manufacturing, services and construction numbers and it fell to 49.9 in September from 50.2 in August. It&#039;s only just on the wrong side, but it&#039;s the first indication of general contraction since June 2009.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tEurope is looking at a recession &ndash; we know that.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tAfter absorbing the economic data Wall Street decided it was still time to buy, albeit last night&#039;s volume was only about half of that seen on Tuesday. The bulk of the volume on Tuesday was accumulated when the Dow was pushing southward, while the last half hour&#039;s extraordinary rally occurred largely in a vacuum. This is not the stuff of major bottoms, but then we cannot call a bottom until the latest developments in Europe are played out and a definitive solution is bedded down. So realistically we&#039;re only now looking at short-covering and a backing away from the sellers rather than a wholesale assault from the buyers. Given Europe&#039;s track record of dithering, dallying and delaying, no one much will be brave enough to call the opera over until the fat lady has sung, taken her bow, accepted her flowers, changed out of her costume and is in the green room guzzling the bubbly.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tOctober 17 will be an important date if we can really foresee the EU summit providing the Great Rescue Plan. What are we up to? Plan M, N, O? Prior to the summit &ndash; next Tuesday to be precise &ndash; Alcoa will release its September quarter earnings result and in so doing officially kick off the US quarterly earnings season. High hopes are still being held for good results to be posted, but the concern is just how bad <span class=\"scayt-misspell\">Q4<\/span> and 2012 earnings guidance may be from company <span class=\"scayt-misspell\">managements<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tWe must remember, nevertheless, that it&#039;s always better to talk down guidance and then post an upside surprise than it is to talk up guidance and then disappoint the market.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tBefore we get to next week, tonight the <span class=\"scayt-misspell\">ECB<\/span> will make a rate decision. Expectations here have taken somewhat of a back-flip given a rate cut is no longer expected. Only last week commentators were talking at least 25 and maybe even 50 basis points, but rhetoric from <span class=\"scayt-misspell\">Trichet<\/span> in the meantime has rather poured cold water on those expectations. It is nevertheless expected <span class=\"scayt-misspell\">Trichet<\/span> will announce other quantitative easing-type measures such as further sovereign bond purchases, and hopefully his legacy, at his final press conference as <span class=\"scayt-misspell\">ECB<\/span> president, will be to announce a new collateral facility as part of the bank <span class=\"scayt-misspell\">recapitalisation<\/span> plan.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe fact that it is <span class=\"scayt-misspell\">Trichet&#039;s<\/span> last policy meeting before his tenure expires has been cited as why he would not reverse the rate rise he implemented only a few months ago. He might look like a fool. Some might say it&#039;s a bit late.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tBase metals trading had already closed on Tuesday before the Wall Street rally although last night&#039;s responses were not exactly exciting. Copper was up 1.7% to mark the biggest move in the complex. Oil shot up last night however, with West Texas leaping US$4.11 or 5% to US$79.78\/<span class=\"scayt-misspell\">bbl<\/span> on news of a larger than expected weekly US inventory <span class=\"scayt-misspell\">offtake<\/span>. These weekly numbers are about as useful as the weekly jobless claims numbers (<span class=\"scayt-misspell\">ie<\/span> not) but Brent still managed a US$2.94 rise to US$102.73\/<span class=\"scayt-misspell\">bbl<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe Aussie risk indicator has put in a solid recovery, rising a cent to US$0.9652 when the US dollar index fell only 0.2% to 78.94. Gold found some buying again, rallying US$22.30 to US$1639.50\/oz. The US ten-year bond yield jumped another 12 basis points to 1.90%.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe <span class=\"scayt-misspell\">SPI<\/span> Overnight was up 69 points or 1.8%.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tRudi will be appearing on Sky Business at noon today and then he&#039;s off to Melbourne for the Trade Expo tomorrow and Saturday. Mexicans are cordially invited to rock up and catch Rudi&#039;s presentations.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe Melbourne Expo means <span class=\"scayt-misspell\">FNArena&#039;s<\/span> fortnightly chart-topping live show, Market Insight, will not be seen today but rather it has been shifted to next week.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t<em>[Note: All paying members at <span class=\"scayt-misspell\">FNArena<\/span> are being reminded they can set an email alert specifically for The Overnight Report. Go to Portfolio and Alerts in the Cockpit and tick the box in front of The Overnight Report. You will receive an email alert every time a new Overnight Report has been published on the website.]<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>European markets responded well to bank recapitalisation talks while Wall Street kicked on. Dow up 131.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[84],"tags":[90,23,21,27,29,24,41,91,22,46,26],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58948"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58948\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.fnarena.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}