Asian Morning Briefing: U.S. Stocks Rise Ahead of Jobs Report

 
                       LAST    CHANGE  % CHG 
DJIA                 17763.24   65.06  0.37% 
Nasdaq                4886.94    6.71  0.14% 
S&P 500               2066.96    7.27  0.35% 
Japan: Nikkei 225    19312.79  277.95  1.46% 
Hang Seng            25275.64  192.89  0.77% 
Shanghai Composite    3825.78   15.49  0.41% 
S&P BSE Sensex       28260.14  302.65  1.08% 
Australia: S&P/ASX     5898.6    37.8  0.64% 
UK: FTSE 100          6833.46   23.96  0.35% 
 
 
                    PRICE CHG  YIELD 
U.S. 2 Year             -1/32  0.555 
U.S. 5 Year             -5/32  1.352 
U.S. 10 Year           -16/32  1.914 
Australia 10 Year        9/32  2.314 
China 10 Year           13/32    3.6 
India 10 Year            1/32  7.734 
Japan 10 Year           13/32  0.339 
German 10 Year          -8/32  0.168 
 
 
                          LAST(MID)  CHANGE 
Australia $ (AUD/USD)        0.7591  -0.0001 
Yen (USD/JPY)                119.73        0 
S. Korean Won (USD/KRW)     1091.29    -7.01 
Chinese Yuan (USD/CNY)       6.2004        0 
Euro (EUR/USD)                1.088        0 
WSJ Dollar Index              87.23        0 
 
 
               LAST   CHANGE  % CHG 
Crude Oil      49.29    -0.8  -1.60% 
Brent Crude    56.13   -2.06  -3.54% 
Gold          1202.3    -5.9  -0.49% 
 

        MARKETS AT A GLANCE
        (Data as of approximately 5 p.m. ET)
        SNAPSHOT:
        U.S. stocks rose Thursday as investors looked ahead to the monthly jobs report. The stock market will be closed Friday for the Good Friday holiday. Oil prices slid after Iran and six world powers agreed on the parameters of a nuclear deal. The dollar tumbled against the euro. Gold prices fell from a one-month high and U.S. Treasury bonds pulled back as upbeat labor-market and factory orders reports sapped demand for haven assets.
        OPENING CALL:
        On Friday, China will release its Markit Economics March services PMI figure. In February, the PMI was 52, up from 51.8 in January.
        It's the service sector that's keeping China growing at a decent pace right now, with much of the slowdown happening in manufacturing and construction. But although the PMI rose slightly in February and remains above the 50 expansion threshold, services aren't growing especially rapidly either.
        EQUITIES:
        U.S. stocks rose, rebounding from two days of losses as investors looked ahead to the monthly jobs report and first-quarter earnings.
        The quiet trading day lifted stocks to weekly gains, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 climbing 0.3% for the week. The stock market will be closed Friday for the Good Friday holiday.
        "The last few weeks have been characterized by extraordinarily low volumes," said Joe Spinelli, head of single-stock trading for the Americas at Deutsche Bank. He attributed the depressed volumes both to many investors being on vacation as well as a "fair amount of complacency" among clients who see no need to shift their current positions.
        Thursday marked the fifth lowest volume day this year, with around 5.8 billion shares changing hands.
        The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 65.06 points, or 0.4%, to 17763.24. The S&P 500 rose 7.27 points, or 0.35%, to 2066.96, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 6.71 points, or 0.1%, to 4886.94.
        In corporate news, CarMax Inc. said its fourth-quarter profit jumped 44% as used vehicle sales remained strong and it benefited from a favorable comparison with the year-ago period. Shares rose 9.3%.
        Stocks across Asia rallied Thursday with Tokyo leading the gains, bringing to a halt two days of losses as investors refocused on hopes Japan's central bank and the country's pension funds will keep increasing their allocation to equities to boost their returns.
        FOREX:
        The dollar tumbled against the euro and other developed-market currencies as investors exited some of their largest bets in anticipation of large price swings tied to the Good Friday holiday.
        The euro climbed 1.1% to a three-day high of $1.0880 in late-afternoon trade. The WSJ Dollar Index, which compares the dollar's value against a basket of 16 currencies, slipped 0.5% to 87.26, falling for a second day.
        The dollar continues to struggle to regain its footing against rivals as investors have turned cautious on the outlook for the U.S. economy over the first three months of 2015 and the Federal Reserve's intentions for interest rates. Consumption and manufacturing data have mostly disappointed so far in 2015, sparking fears that the U.S. central bank would delay raising interest rates until late this year.
        The U.S. labor market has been a standout, posting 12 consecutive months of gains of 200,000 or more jobs. On Friday, the Labor Department is expected to announce that the U.S. added 248,000 jobs last month.
        But Friday is also a holiday in many parts of the world, and investors appear to be concerned about the prospect of fewer traders around for the release of such important U.S. data.
        "I would expect volumes and liquidity to be low, and the potential for outsize [currency price] moves to be high," said Aroop Chatterjee, chief currency quantitative strategist at Barclays.
        BONDS:
        U.S. Treasury bonds pulled back for the first time in three days as upbeat labor-market and factory orders reports sapped demand for haven assets.
        The data came ahead of the nonfarm payrolls report due Friday morning, which is key to shaping investors' expectations on whether the Federal Reserve is going to raise short-term interest rates in June or wait longer to act.
        In late-afternoon trading, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was 1.905%, compared with a two-month low of 1.866% Wednesday. When bond prices fall, their yields rise.
        Initial jobless claims, a gauge of layoffs, decreased by 20,000 to a seasonally adjusted 268,000 in the week ended March 28, nearly the lowest level in 15 years. Factory orders rose 0.2% in February, beating expectations for a 0.4% decline.
        "Jobless claims gave a nicely positive signal to bond traders desperate for a reason to sell" after the recent price strength, said Jim Vogel, interest rate strategist at FTN Financial.
        COMMODITIES:
        Oil prices slid after Iran and six world powers agreed on the parameters of a nuclear deal, which could result in the lifting of sanctions on Tehran's crude-oil exports.
        A joint statement released Thursday said the process of drafting a final deal on Iran's nuclear program can begin. The deadline for a final deal is June 30.
        The deal is meant to block Iran from developing nuclear weapons in exchange for the lifting of western sanctions on the country.
        The prospect of increased Iranian crude exports has weighed on oil prices, which have already plunged more than 50% since June due to a global glut of oil. The market is currently oversupplied by between one and 1.5 million barrels a day, according to estimates.
        Iran, which has 10% of the world's crude-oil reserves, has seen its production and export capacity sharply curtailed by sanctions. Its crude exports dropped from 2.5 million barrels a day in 2011 to 1.1 million barrels a day in 2013, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
        Analysts say Iran has between 20 million and 35 million barrels of crude oil in storage that it can immediately release if sanctions are lifted, but experts are divided on how quickly the country could ramp up production from its oil fields.
        Brent, the global crude-oil benchmark, settled down $2.15, or 3.8%, to $54.95 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. Prices fell 2.6% on the week.
        The U.S. benchmark fell 95 cents, or 1.9%, to $49.14 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, posting a 0.6% weekly gain.
        Trading in both contracts will be closed Friday for the Good Friday holiday.
        "There was skepticism that a real deal could have been reached, but when those headlines came out that they made substantial progress, the market started to sell off," said Phil Flynn, analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago.
        Gold prices fell from a one-month high as some traders chose to lock in gains ahead of U.S. employment data, which comes out over a long weekend for metals traders.
        TODAY'S HEADLINES:
        Iran, West Reach Framework on Nuclear Deal
        Iran and six world powers have agreed on the parameters of a deal meant to block Tehran from developing nuclear weapons in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.
        U.S. Jobless Claims Fall By 20,000
        The number of Americans seeking first-time unemployment benefits fell to near the lowest level in 15 years last week, a sign of continued improvement in the labor market.
        U.S. Trade Gap Narrows in February
        The trade deficit narrowed to a seasonally adjusted $35.44 billion in February, its lowest level since October 2009, reflecting a sharper drop in imports than exports. Economists had forecast a trade deficit of $41.5 billion.
        At Least 147 Dead in Attack on Kenyan University
        Heavily armed gunmen stormed a university campus in northern Kenya, leaving at least 147 dead and underscoring the challenges the government faces in thwarting terrorism from within and across its borders.
        Facebook Confronts European Probes
        Facebook is confronting a wave of probes in Europe into its privacy practices, escalating tensions between European authorities and a handful of U.S-based tech giants.
        Activist Investor Nominates Directors to Macerich Board
        Activist investor Jonathan Litt, whose hedge fund seeks to shake up real-estate companies, has nominated directors to the board of Macerich following the mall owner's rejection of a $16.8 billion takeover bid.
        Yellen: Economic Inequality Long An Interest Of The Fed
        In a speech defending the Federal Reserve's interest in economic inequality issues, Chairwoman Janet Yellen said more work needs to be done to understand what conditions allow people to rise up and down the income ladder in the U.S.
        Germanwings Co-Pilot Andreas Lubitz Searched Internet for Suicide Methods
        (MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires

        April 02, 2015 17:30 ET (21:30 GMT)

        Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot suspected of slamming a German passenger jet into a French mountainside last week, killing himself and 149 others, deliberately planned a suicide mission, evidence found by German investigators suggests.
        Investors Pull $7.3B From Pimco Fund in March
        A Vanguard fund managed by Joshua Barrickman is $1 billion away from surpassing Pacific Investment Management Co.'s Total Return fund after clients pulled $7.3 billion from Pimco's flagship product in March, according to data released by both money managers.
        FICO Announces New Credit Score Based on Alternative Data
        Fair Isaac, creator of the most widely used consumer credit scores, announced a new score intended to make millions of people who have had difficulty getting approved for financing creditworthy.
        RECENT DJ EXCLUSIVES:
        Germanwings Co-Pilot Andreas Lubitz Searched Internet for Suicide Methods
        Embraer Tugged by Brazil's Economic Woes
        Sanctions Aren't Only Block for Western Oil Companies Eyeing Iran
        Rate Increase Is a Job for the Fed -- Ahead of the Tape
        Mattel to Make Christopher Sinclair Permanent CEO
        TODAY'S CALENDAR
        (Times in GMT, followed by country and event)
        2100 SKA Mar International Reserves
        0135 JPN Mar Japan Services PMI
        0145 CHN Mar China Services PMI
        0401 MAL Feb External Trade
        0730 THA Weekly International Reserves
        1130 IND Weekly foreign exchange reserves
        1230 US Mar U.S. Employment Report
        Access Investor Kit for CarMax, Inc.
        Visit http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US1431301027
        (END) Dow Jones Newswires

        April 02, 2015 17:30 ET (21:30 GMT)

#FX
#Forex
#GermanWings
#Iran
#US_Stocks
#JobsReport