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US stock market, economy and companies update (September 21, 2012)

Contributed by Trade The News

- Markets are perking up this morning after yesterday's swoon, as traders amp up volume and roll over positions for quadruple witching. Note that the September S&P rebalance will be larger than usual due to a revised float adjustment methodology. There has not been much big US news to trade off of, while Apple is pushing out to new all-time highs above $700 as it launches sales of the iPhone 5 today. In Europe, there are reports that the troika will put off its report on Greece until after the November US election to avoid roiling the global economy. In Spain, Madrid's quarrel with Catalonia continues, threatening to worsen Spain's ability to implement austerity and possibly request a new bailout. However, German Fin Min Schaeuble echoed comments from Spanish officials in saying that Spain doesn't need a bailout anyway. Meanwhile the Spanish PM is denying than other big round of austerity plans focused on pensions and retirement age are in the offing. Yields on both Spanish and Italian 10-year bonds remain elevated, at 5.7% and 5%, respectively. Trading in EUR/USD has gyrated in a range between 1.2960 and 1.3045 on the Europe news. Gold pushed out to fresh 6.5-month highs above $1,785 before the US open, although it has pulled back slightly as US equities head higher.

- Oracle saw some softness in sales in Q1, with the total declining y/y and missing analysts' expectations. The firm's revenue outlook for Q2 was also a bit soft, considering the FX , and more notably warned that its hardware revenue could fall as much as 18% y/y as it continues its push into cloud computing. Analysts reiterated or boosted their ratings and price targets on the name, noting that the cloud computing shift would greatly benefit the firm. Shares of ORCL are in the black. In other tech industry news, TXN hiked its dividend and Seagate discussed its business in a general way this morning. Both are up moderately. Darden is up nearly 5% on some decent Q1 numbers, although note that the firm did trim its FY13 outlook. VVUS is down nearly 12% after it warned that a European committee would likely recommend against the approval of its obesity drug Qsiva.

***Looking Ahead***
- 12:40 (US) Fed's Lockhart speaks on Policy and Economy in Atlanta
- 13:00 (DE) German, French Ministers discuss Europe's Future in Ludwigsburg
- 15:00 (AR) Argentina Q2 Current Account: No est v -$552M prior
- 15:00 (AR) Argentina Q2 Quarterly GDP: 0.5%e v 5.2% prior

***Economic Data***
- (CA) Canada July Wholesale Sales M/M: 0.02% v 0.2%e v -0.1% prior
- (CA) Canada Aug Consumer Price Index M/M: 0.2% v 0.3%e; Y/Y: 1.2% v 1.3%e; Consumer Price Index: 121.8 v 121.5 prior
- (CA) Canada Aug CPI Core M/M: 0.3% v 0.3%e; Y/Y: 1.6% v 1.5%e
- (BE) Belgium Sept Business Confidence: -11.6 v -11.8 prior
- (MX) Mexico Aug Unemployment Rate: 5.39 v 5.0% prior