US Hiring Surges As Wage Gains Accelerate Fed`s
Transcription
US Hiring Surges As Wage Gains Accelerate Fed`s
Market Snapshot* DJIA 17683.58 -46.52 4991.94 -17.26 S&P 500 2068.76 -8.01 10-Year 2.2771% +1 Nasdaq Monday, July 06, 2015 30-Year 3.0719% 2 8/32 Euro $1.10535 -0.0032 $52.53 -4.4 Nymex Crude Source: SIX Telekurs, ICAP plc Stocks U.S. stocks drifted lower Monday after Greeks resoundingly rejected creditors' conditions for further financial aid. More than 61% of Greek citizens voted "no" in Sunday's referendum on the terms for a bailout that included pension cuts, tax increases and other measures. The referendum was on whether to accept austerity terms demanded by the country's creditors in exchange for further aid. The "no" vote appeared to increase the likelihood that Greece may eventually exit the eurozone. Treasurys Investors piled into ultrasafe U.S. Treasury bonds Monday as Greece's sovereign debt crisis plunged further into uncharted territory. "It is a flight to quality trade," said Tom di Galoma, head of rates and credit trading in New York at ED & F Man Capital Markets. "Greece being forced to leave the eurozone is truly the biggest risk right now." Forex The Japanese yen rose modestly against the euro and the dollar Monday as investors sought to protect their wealth amid concerns that Greece has moved closer to exiting the eurozone. The yen rose 0.6% toward a five-week high against the common currency, with one euro buying 135.69 yen. The yen also increased 0.3% against the dollar, trading at 122.44 yen against the U.S. currency. Tomorrow’s Headlines Germany Stays Tough on Greek Debt Relief Germany stood firm against debt relief for Greece the day after the country’s voters issued a resounding “no” to more austerity, signaling a possible tough fight ahead on one of the few remaining opportunities for compromise. About 61% of Greek voters strongly backed Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s stance against the pension cuts and tax increases that creditors—the rest of the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund—say are necessary to get Greece’s economy going again. That leaves cutting debt as a central subject. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande, whose country has emerged as one of the few friendly voices for Greece in the eurozone, were to discuss the issue in Paris on Monday evening, and it will be a major theme at a summit of eurozone leaders on Tuesday. Raising expectations on the possibility of resuming negotiations, the country’s confrontational Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis resigned on Monday under pressure from Mr. Tsipras and creditors. Though extremely popular at home, Mr. Varoufakis has exasperated European colleagues with his blunt talk since taking the job at the end of January. Humana Cuts View Days After Aetna Deal Humana Inc. on Monday cut its earnings outlook because of higher-thanexpected medical costs as the company discussed its previously announced $34.1 billion tie-up with Aetna Inc. continued on page 2 Tomorrow’s Calendar 7:45 a.m. 07/04 The Retail Economist/Goldman Sachs Weekly Chain Store Sales Index - WoW (previous +2.2%), YoY (previous +2.7%) 8:30 a.m. May U.S. International Trade in Goods & Services Deficit (expected -42.8B), Exports (previous 189.91B), Exports Percent Change (previous +1%), Imports (previous 230.78B), Imports Percent Change (previous -3.3%) 8:55 a.m. 07/04 Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index MoM % Change (previous -1.5%), 12MonChgPct (previous +1.4%), 52WkChgPct (previous +1.7%) 10:00 a.m. IMF staff report on the U.S. economy 10:00 a.m. Jul IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index Economic Optimism Index (previous 48.1), 6-Month Economic Outlook (previous 45.3) 10:00 a.m. May Job Openings & Labor Turnover Survey 4:30 p.m. 07/03 API Weekly Statistical Bulletin Crude Stocks (Net Change) (previous +1.9M), Gasoline Stocks (Net Change) (previous +0.33M), Distillate Stocks (Net Change) (previous +0.26M), Refinery Runs N/A Obama hosts Vietnamese Communist Party chief at the White House Commodities Oil prices on Monday skidded to their biggest single-day declines in more than three months, as gyrations in Chinese stocks and the prospect of more crude from the U.S. and Iran revived worries about the global supply glut. China's stock markets have plunged in recent weeks, which sparked worries among investors about oil demand in the world's second-largest consumer. *preliminary values subject to adjustments Copyright © Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. www.dowjones.com page 1 Monday, July 06, 2015 4 p.m. ET Tomorrow’s Headlines continued Humana Chief Executive Bruce Broussard said the company is performing in a “reasonable fashion,” but that hospital admissions in its Medicare Advantage business “have not come down as quickly” as it projected. As a result, the insurer predicted earnings of $1.60 to $1.65 a share for the quarter ended in June, short of the $2.36 anticipated by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. For the year, Humana sees per-share earnings excluding certain costs of $7.75, down sharply from its previous estimate of $8.50 to $9. The new outlook comes as Humana recently agreed to be bought by rival Aetna for about $230 a share in cash and stock. On a conference call Monday, Aetna Chief Financial Officer Shawn Guertin said Humana’s updated outlook was “consistent with the information we examined during our diligence,” adding the companies did “months of thoughtful analysis.” Humana also said it had revised its 2016 bids to reflect the higher costs and was confident in its pricing plans. Aetna noted that it had reached the same conclusion after hiring an independent company to review the bids. Seritage Shares Rise After Spinoff From Sears Seritage Growth Properties’ shares gained as much as 4% in their market debut on Monday after the real estate spinoff of Sears Holdings Corp. estimated that it brought in about $1.6 billion through its rights offering. Seritage Growth, structured as a real-estate investment trust, plans to use the proceeds of the offering to fund in part its $2.72 billion purchase of 235 properties and 31 joint-venture interests from Sears. That purchase is expected to close Tuesday. Seritage said it would lease back all but 11 properties to Sears. Sears announced it was exploring spinning off some of its top Sears and Kmart properties into a REIT last year as it sought to raise much-needed cash. FINRA Orders Wells, RJames, LPL To Pay $30M On Overcharging Wall Street’s self-regulator ordered three of the nation’s biggest brokerages to pay more than $30 million in restitution to clients overcharged on mutual-fund sales. The wealth-management units of Wells Fargo & Co., Raymond James Financial Inc. and LPL Financial Holdings Inc. failed to waive mutual-fund sales fees for certain retirement-plan customers and charitable organizations, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. said Monday. The restitution follows a similar order against Merrill Lynch last year. Finra ordered the Bank of America Corp. unit in June 2014 to pay an $8 million fine and $24.4 million in restitution to settle allegations that it improperly applied mutual-fund sales charges to certain accounts. Mutual-fund companies provide sales-charge waivers for retirement plans to keep them in line with Employee Retirement Income Security Act rules that are designed to reduce conflicts of interest. Fortress To Restructure Flagship Fund Fortress Investment Group LLC is set to announce a major restructuring of its flagship hedge fund on the heels of heavy recent losses and significant investor withdrawals, according to people close to the matter. The fund, Fortress Macro Fund, which is run by closely followed investor Michael Novogratz, is down about 10% so far this year due in part to poor currency trades. It began the year at $1.6 billion in assets and managed $1.3 billion as of March 31. Including related accounts, the fund managed $2.8 billion as of March 31, down from $3.2 billion at the beginning of the year. Mr. Novogratz, a former college wrestler known for his highprofile public predictions about global economic trends and a flamboyant sartorial style, has been in a slump in recent years. The fund, launched in 2002, managed more than $8 billion in 2007. Judge Tosses Ex-Goldman Programmer’s Second Conviction Sergey Aleynikov has spent about half a decade on trial, accused of stealing sophisticated trading software from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. And for the second time in four years, a court delivered a judgment that went against a jury’s findings: He isn’t guilty of breaking the law. On Monday, New York state Justice Daniel P. Conviser dismissed a conviction of Sergey Aleynikov, saying prosecutors hadn’t shown enough evidence to support a jury’s May verdict that Mr. Aleynikov made unlawful use of secret scientific material. The ruling is a rebuke to prosecutors in the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., who pushed the case in state court even after a similar case was thrown out at the federal level three years ago. Mr. Aleynikov was convicted on charges of stealing the bank’s “secret sauce” trading code in federal court in 2010, but was acquitted by an appellate court in 2012 after spending a year in prison. Less than a year after his federal case was thrown out, Mr. Vance’s office charged him under state laws. It is rare for state prosecutors to bring a criminal case related to the same conduct after a federal conviction is overturned—and some lawyers in the defense bar at the time described the move as overly aggressive. Wells Fargo will have to pay about $15 million, Raymond James $8.7 million, and LPL $6.3 million. Copyright © Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. www.dowjones.com continued on page 3 page 2 Monday, July 06, 2015 4 p.m. ET Canada Business Sector Feels Lower Oil Prices Tomorrow’s Headlines continued American Apparel to Close Stores, Raise Capital American Apparel Inc. warned on Monday that it may need to raise additional capital over the next year even as it embarks on an aggressive cost-cutting plan to help it end five years of losses. The embattled retailer is seeking to save $30 million over the next 18 months through various measures including closing stores and laying off workers. The company didn’t say how many employees would lose their jobs, but said in a release Monday that it is seeking to preserve jobs for the “overwhelming majority” of its 10,000 employees. It plans to shut underperforming stores in oversaturated markets, while looking to add new locations in profitable, fast-growing territories. Starbucks Raises Prices by About 1% Starbucks Corp. is raising prices slightly on some of its beverages to cover rising costs including wages and rent, even as prices for raw coffee have been falling. The Seattle company, like other coffee purveyors, often raises prices for its products when coffee prices increase, but the latest move comes despite a decline of about 42% in Arabica futures prices from a peak late last year. The increase, which takes effect Tuesday, will increase the cost of the average customer order by about 1%, Starbucks said. Bagged coffee won’t be affected. Canada’s business sector continues to feel the pain of lower oil prices, though business sentiment edged up in the second quarter after a dismal start to the year, the Bank of Canada said Monday. Views on sales prospects, capital investment and hiring remain at relatively weak levels, the central bank said in its quarterly business outlook survey. The findings are likely to add to pressure on Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz to cut interest rates for the second time this year amid evidence the Canadian economy has stalled. Canada’s gross domestic product declined 0.6% on an annualized basis in the first quarter, and shrank 0.1% in April, providing a weak start to the second quarter. “There was little in the survey to inspire optimism about Canada’s economy,” said Leslie Preston, an economist at TD Bank. Iran: Nuclear Deal Must Include Lifting Arms Embargo Iran is pushing for the United Nations’ arms embargo on the country to be completely lifted, as part of a final agreement to curb its nuclear program, a senior Iranian diplomat said on Monday. Tehran’s demand is among the final issues still being negotiated between Iran and six world powers—Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the U.S.—in an effort to reach a final agreement in the Austrian capital. The increase comes from an overall need to manage business costs, including labor and rent expenses, a Starbucks spokeswoman said. The Obama administration has cited Tuesday as the deadline for concluding the talks. But U.S. and Iranian officials have suggested privately in recent days that the negotiations could extend to later in the week. ISM Services Index Rises To 56 In June Obama To Get Pentagon Briefing On Islamic State The U.S. service sector plodded along in June, according to data released Monday by the Institute for Supply Management. Respondents were generally upbeat about the economy. President Barack Obama will get a rare briefing at the Pentagon Monday about the military’s efforts against Islamic State as the administration faces persistent criticism that his strategy is too cautious. The ISM’s nonmanufacturing purchasing managers index edged up to 56.0 in June from 55.7 in May. Forecasters surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected last month’s PMI to rise to 56.3. “The service sector continues to expand at a solid pace, but the pace of expansion is no longer accelerating,” wrote economists at Jefferies in a research note. Mr. Obama will receive updates from Defense Secretary Ash Carter, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Marty Dempsey and others about the Pentagon’s efforts against Islamic State, and then will make public remarks based on what he has learned. Mr. Obama’s visit to the Pentagon is being billed as a routine update, and he isn’t expected to announce any big changes to the strategy against the militant group that has proved to be a formidable adversary in both Iraq and Syria. Earlier Monday, data provider Markit said its service-sector composite fell to 54.8 in June from 56.2 in May. Markit said output and employment growth each slowed in June. As with the ISM, Markit readings above 50 indicate activity is expanding. Still, the visit across the Potomac River for the president is far from routine: last time Mr. Obama appeared at the Pentagon was in October 2014. Copyright © Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. www.dowjones.com page 3 Monday, July 06, 2015 4 p.m. ET Copyright Dow Jones & Co., Inc. Talking Points Tomorrow's News Today is made available as a complimentary service to Dow Jones News Service paying subscribers. No further redistribution is permitted without written permission from Dow Jones. Tomorrow’s News Today is intended to provide factual information, but its accuracy cannot be guaranteed. Dow Jones is not a registered investment adviser, and under no circumstances shall any of the information provided be construed as a buy or sell recommendation or investment advice of any kind. Germany Has Much To Lose In Grexit Want to send a co-branded daily version to your valued clients? Dow Jones offers subscribing firms the opportunity to co-brand Tomorrow's News Today for redistribution to their clients. If your firm is interested in co-branding, please contact us at [email protected] or 1.800.223.2274. When Chancellor Angela Merkel joins her fellow European leaders in Brussels on Tuesday for talks that will decide whether Greece can keep the euro, the cost of failure will be at the back of her mind. Should the talks collapse and Greece stumble out of the eurozone, every member state stands to lose the loans extended as part of Greece’s past bailouts—a factor that could help sway the negotiations one way or another. Yet, while many countries might see the price of failure as an incentive to seek an amicable deal, Germany, which has taken the lead in shaping Europe’s answer to the eurozone crisis for the past five years, faces a less clear-cut calculation. The German government hasn’t published estimates of how much it could lose in case of a default, arguing that this scenario could unfold in too many different ways. Based on available data, however, the Munich-based Ifo economic institute puts total German exposure to Greece, including the loans and a host of other liabilities, at 88 billion euro ($97 billion), while rating agency Standard & Poor’s estimates it at 90.6 billion euro. This would make Germany Greece’s largest creditor in the eurozone and the country with the most to lose from a Greek default. But because of factors ranging from Germany’s good fiscal position—it is currently generating a budget surplus—buoyant tax revenues, and the fact that many loans to Greece aren’t set to mature for many years, many economists argue that Berlin would weather a Greek default largely unscathed. The hit “would hardly be noticeable for Germans,” said Jens Boysen-Hogrefe, economist with the Kiel-based institute IfW. Moritz Kramer, analyst with S&P, said Germany could absorb such losses in its roughly 300 billion euro federal budget “without triggering any noticeable tax or spending moves.” For Dirk Schumacher, economist with Goldman Sachs, “there isn’t a lot at risk in the near term....Such losses would materialize over several years and they can be compensated with [normal] fiscal revenues.” Berlin has 53.4 billion euro in bilateral and eurozone-wide loans and loan guarantees outstanding to Greece. But repayments aren’t due to start until 2020 for the first program and 2024 for the second. Should Greece default on the bonds held by the European and national central banks, Germany would face a hit of up to 7.1 billion euro. It also has a 29 billion euro exposure to Greece through the eurozone’s Target2 interbank payment system, which would be crystallized only if Greece exited the eurozone. Losses on the ECB’s bonds would be shared among eurozone central banks, which could result in a reduction in the profits the Bundesbank pays to the government. It isn’t clear how the Target2 claims would be dealt with, since the eurozone wasn’t designed to break up. Economists also stress a default would almost certainly be only partial. And while Germany looks to be Greece’s largest creditor in absolute terms, it is only middle-ranking in relative terms, with countries such as France, Italy, Spain and even Slovenia being owed more as a share of their gross domestic products. Germany’s relative immunity could strengthen Ms. Merkel’s hand in coming talks with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. Berlin officials have said repeatedly they wouldn’t be “blackmailed” into rushing a deal ahead of the next large redemption of Greek bonds on July 20. Speaking Monday, Sigmar Gabriel, German economics minister and vice chancellor, made it clear he wasn’t afraid of a default. “The ultimate insolvency of the country seems to be imminent,” Mr. Gabriel said, adding that it was up to Greece to prevent it. continued on page 5 Copyright © Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. www.dowjones.com page 4 Monday, July 06, 2015 4 p.m. ET Talking Points continued Seib: Don’t Dismiss The Donald Search Google for Donald Trump buffoon and you will get more than 50,000 hits in return. As that suggests, the tendency to dismiss Mr. Trump, the billionaire populist Republican presidential candidate as exactly that—a buffoon—is pretty widespread. It’s also a mistake. Mr. Trump is important for two reasons: first for the damage he can do to the Republican Party, and second for the useful lesson he can teach that same party. The potential damage comes largely in the harm he can do—indeed, already may have done—to Republicans’ crucial mission of building better bridges to Hispanics. The lesson comes by way of illustrating the depths of populist anger running through sectors of the GOP right now. It seems necessary to note that Mr. Trump isn’t a serious contender for the Republican presidential nomination, in the sense that he might actually win. But he can win a place on the campaign stage, at least for a while, his relative strength increased by the dilution of support across a sprawling GOP field that now has more than a dozen affirmed contenders. He ranked second in the most recent CNN/ORC national poll of Republican voters at 12%, and tied for second in the latest Quinnipiac survey of Iowa voters. Nobody is more eager to remind us of this burst of support than Mr. Trump himself, who seems available to jump on the phone at any time with any cable-TV host to discuss it. The specific problem for Republicans is that what most of Mr. Trump’s interlocutors ask about is the view of Hispanics he laid out in his announcement speech, which was more of an announcement screed. That was the speech in which he characterized Hispanic immigrants this way: “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” As for the country of Mexico itself, he declared: “They are not our friend, believe me.” This view of Hispanics is associated with a man who, for the moment at least, has a good chance of carrying those views into nationally televised Republican presidential debates starting in one month. The reason this matters so deeply is best illustrated in a new book, “2016 and Beyond,” by Republican pollster Whit Ayres. The book’s subtitle is “How Republicans Can Elect a President in the New America,” and Mr. Ayres musters data that shows that task is pretty much impossible without an improved performance among Hispanic voters. In a nutshell, the story is this: The white population is steadily shrinking as a share of the electorate, and the Hispanic population is steadily growing. But the Republicans’ presidential-campaign performance has been going in the reverse order: Its candidates are winning more of a shrinking white vote and losing more of a growing Hispanic vote. Copyright © Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. www.dowjones.com page 5