S&P 500 Futures Fall as Dollar Gains on Fed Bets; Bonds Advance
By Bloomberg
U.S. equity-index futures fell as the dollar strengthened amid speculation the U.S. is moving closer to raising interest rates. Energy producers led European stocks lower, while bonds rallied on the second day of the euro area’s quantitative-easing program.
Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures slid 0.8 percent at 9:02 a.m. in New York. The dollar climbed to an almost 12-year high versus the euro and a gauge of 20 emerging-market currencies fell for a ninth day as Mexico’s peso slid to an all- time low. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index slipped 0.7 percent. Oil fell for a fifth day in London. Credit Suisse Group AG rallied the most in almost a month after naming a new chief executive officer. The yield on Germany’s five-year note dropped two basis points to minus 0.106 percent.
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher, in his last speech at the helm of the Fed branch, said the central bank should begin to gradually raise rates as the labor market improves. Five-year German notes were among purchases on Tuesday in the European Central Bank’s 60 billion-euro ($64 billion) a month debt-buying plan, according to three people with knowledge of the transactions.
“A continuation of dollar strength and euro destruction is certainly raising some concerns,” Michael James, a Los Angeles- based managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities Inc., said in a phone interview. “How much is a stronger dollar going to impact the bottom lines of U.S. companies? I don’t think there was any one specific event or item that caused this. It has more to do with sentiment and emotion than valuations.”
Dollar Climbs
The dollar rose against all but one of its 16 major peers, advancing 0.7 percent versus the euro to $1.0773, earlier touching $1.0723, the strongest since April 2003. The Australian dollar fell 0.4 percent after a business-confidence gauge slid.
All 19 industry groups in the Stoxx 600 fell, with more than four shares declining for every one that advanced, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Total SA and BP Plc dropped more than 2 percent.
Credit Suisse rallied 7.4 percent after naming Prudential Plc’s Tidjane Thiam to replace Brady Dougan as chief executive officer. Prudential fell 2.7 percent.
Hannover Re advanced 4.4 percent as the world’s third- biggest reinsurer said it will pay a special dividend after fourth-quarter profit rose more than analysts estimated. Flavor and fragrances maker Symrise AG added 2.1 percent after posting quarterly earnings that beat projections.
Bull Market
S&P 500 futures slipped after the index climbed the most in a week yesterday. As the bull market in U.S. equities enters its seventh year, traders are loading up on options to protect against losses if the rally loses steam.
The MSCI Emerging Markets Index slid 1.4 percent, falling for an eighth day to erase this year’s advance. Mexico’s peso slid as much as 1 percent to 15.6271 per dollar as currencies from South Korea to Turkey and Brazil dropped more than 1 percent.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng China Enterprise Index slid 1.4 percent and the Shanghai Composite Index slipped 0.5 percent. While Chinese producer prices extended a record stretch of declines to 36 months, consumer prices rose faster than economists forecast in February.
Energy producers led Russia’s Micex Index down 2.8 percent to a one-month low while the ruble slipped 1.4 percent as trading resumed in Moscow following a holiday on Monday.
Debt Restructuring
Ukraine’s hryvnia gained 3.4 percent and the country’s $2.6 billion of bonds due July 2017 advanced 2.04 cents to 47.11 cents on the dollar, cutting the yield to 49.53 percent. Paul Rawkins, a senior director at Fitch Ratings, said Ukraine may avoid writedowns on the value of its securities in restructuring talks with bondholders as part of an international bailout.
“What’s most likely is, as the authorities have implied, some form of a rescheduling, no haircuts, just a straightforward extension of maturities,” London-based Rawkins said in a phone interview. “We don’t expect haircuts at this stage.”
Oil’s five-day slide in London is the longest run of losses in almost three months. Brent crude was 1.2 percent lower at $57.83 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate declined 0.5 percent to $49.73.
U.S. crude inventories are projected to have increased further from a record high, according to a Bloomberg News survey before an Energy Information Administration report Wednesday. Production of U.S. shale oil will expand at the slowest pace in more than four years in April, the EIA said Monday.
Copper fell 1.9 percent, leading industrial metals lower after factory-gate deflation deepened in China. Nickel slid 2 percent and zinc lost 0.9 percent.
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