The cautious, “risk-off”, sentiment that permeated yesterday’s trading has rolled through world markets overnight and come back around this morning. Yesterday’s US index declines of 3.5% to 4.75% were followed in Asia Pacific trading by drops of 2.5% for Hong Kong, 1.9% for Tokyo and 1.6% for Sydney. European trading this morning finds the FTSE down 2.1% and the Dax down 1.5%. Energy commodities are down again today as well with WTI crude oil falling 1.6% and natural gas sliding 3.6%. Defensive havens have continued to attract capital with the Japanese Yen up 0.4% and Gold up 0.7%
There have been some early encouraging signs this morning that suggest the latest tsunami of selling may be subsiding. US index futures are down about 0.8% but are up off their early morning lows. Bitcoin has erased overnight losses and is up 0.8% this morning. Copper is up 0.8% as well. It remains to be seen, however, if morning bounces can sustain themselves through the day.
Canadian inflation numbers announced today showed price pressures starting to ease somewhat. Industrial product prices increased more than expected from a month ago (0.8% vs street 0.5%) but slowed from last month’s 3.4% pace. New house price growth slowed to 9.4% over year from last month’s annualized 11.0% pace. Raw material prices fell 2.0% in April after rising 11.8% in March.
Earnings reports have been mixed again this morning. Canada Goose is up 10.4% in premarket action after posting a surprise profit per share (+$0.04 vs street -$0.01) and forecasting EPS for this year above expectations ($1.60-$1.90 vs street $1.61). Networking equipment giant Cisco Systems, on the other hand, is down 11.0% premarket after reporting sales that were worse that expected ($12.8B vs street $13.3B).
SIA Wealth Market Outlook Webinar With Jeremy Fehr TODAY at 2:00 pm EDT
Please join us on Thursday, May 19 @ 12pm MT / 2pm ET for our monthly Market Outlook Webinar.
Join SIA Wealth CEO, Jeremy Fehr, as he discusses the ongoing R&D advancements implemented into SIA Wealth’s Mutual Fund and ETF mandates over the past two years, which have helped SIA Wealth successfully manage the current volatile market environment.
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