What Is Happening In Financial Markets Today?

Published on March 28, 2017 at 2:28 pm by Insider Monkey Staff in Commodities, Gold, Market Movers, News

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1. US Stock Market:

“The Dow Jones Industrial Average sought its first advance in nine days, while banks led gains in the S&P 500 Index as markets continue to digest the failure of U.S. President Donald Trump’s health-care bill.” (Bloomberg)

“U.S. stocks pushed higher after financial firms rebounded from a six-week low as investors speculated selling sparked by U.S. policy uncertainty had gone too far. Treasuries and the dollar were little changed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose for the first time in nine days, while banks rallied 1 percent to pace gains in the S&P 500 Index.” (Bloomberg)

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2. US Bond Market:

“Investors reduced bullish bets on longer-dated U.S. Treasuries on concerns that U.S. President Donald Trump and top Republican lawmakers may struggle to pass fiscal stimulus policies, J.P. Morgan’s latest Treasury client survey showed on Tuesday.” (Reuters)

“Prices of U.S. government bonds gave up earlier gains to trade little changed on Tuesday after a strong consumer sentiment report sapped demand for haven debt. In recent trading, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was 2.376%, according to Tradeweb.” (The Wall Street Journal)

3. FX Markets:

“A high-risk corner of the $5.1 trillion-a-day currency market has become the collateral damage of the dollar selloff. Whipsawed by the greenback and confronted by U.S. policy confusion, carry trades were supposed to be a rare bright spot for investors who want to stay away from the world’s biggest reserve currency.” (Bloomberg)

“The dollar strengthened against its main rivals on Tuesday after consumer confidence in March soared to its highest level in more than 16 years, sending Treasury yields and stocks higher. The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index leapt to 125.6 in March from 116.1 in February, surpassing economists’ expectations for a 114.1, according to a survey conducted by MarketWatch.” (Market Watch)

4. Commodities:

“Gold futures traded flat on Tuesday as investors weighed the outlook for the Trump administration’s fiscal-policy agenda following last week’s failed effort at overhauling the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. Gold for April delivery on Comex GCJ7, +0.00% rose $1.50, or 0.1%, to $1,257 an ounce, while May silver SIK7, +0.76% was up 9.7 cents, or 0.5%, at $18.205 an ounce.” (Market Watch)

“Oil prices surged as much as 2 percent on Tuesday after a severe disruption to Libyan oil supplies and as officials suggested OPEC could extend its production cuts deal to the end of the year. Armed factions have blocked production at the western Libyan oilfields of Sharara and Wafa, reducing output by 252,000 barrels per day (bpd), about a third PRODN-LY, said a source at the National Oil Corp (NOC). NOC has declared force majeure on crude loadings from those oilfields.” (Reuters).

“Traders who have ridden gold higher over the past few months might want to think about cashing out. So far this year, gold has climbed 9 percent, nearly doubling the performance of the S&P 500. Still, the move comes after the metal gave back about 12 percent from the start of September through the end of 2016, We have another relief rally in gold,” Piper Jaffray technical analyst Craig Johnson said Monday on CNBC’s “Power Lunch.” “At best, I would say this rally runs out of steam 3 percent higher.”” (CNBC)

“A surge in oil hedges will spur drilling activity in the U.S., Wood Mackenzie said in a report released on Monday, likely keeping a supply response in place longer than expected even if spot prices fall sharply. “Those hoping that recent oil-price weakness will prompt U.S. producers to pull back drilling activity and ease the glut of oil supply may need to keep waiting,” said the consultancy.” (CNBC)

5. Market Movers:

Huntsman Corporation (NYSE:HUN) has surged 5% this afternoon, far out pacing the broader market indexes and its market peers, in part due to Chairman John Huntsman Sr’s comments to Bloomberg that the company was ‘seriously looking’ at a potential merger after spinning of its more volatile titanium dioxide segment. Huntsman Sr. said, ‘We are looking seriously at the possibility of doing a merger or doing something that would double or triple our revenue’. Given that mergers can unlock substantial synergies due to company overlap, traders have bid Huntsman Corporation (NYSE:HUN) shares up today in the expectation that the company’s margins might improve if potential M&A occurs. (Insider Monkey).