Another Volatile Day in the Markets!
Japanese Yen: Lead-month September Japanese Yen futures soared to highs last seen in July of 2006, as a sell-off in many of the major stock markets continues to inspire a flight to “safe haven “ securities such as short term government debt and traders continue to liquidate “carry trades.” Traders will also be closely watching today’s U.S. housing starts figures for July, with expectations for a slowdown to an annualized pace of 1.4 million versus 1.467 last month. In early trade, September Japanese Yen futures were hovering at 0.8788, up 0.0199.
S&P 500 futures: No recovery in early trade for U.S. Stock Index futures, as a sell-off in major world stock markets has caused the September mini-S&P 500 contract to fall below the 1400.00 level for the lead month contract for the first time since March. The beneficiary of the flight of funds from the stock indexes appears headed to U.S. Treasuries, with the yield on the two-year note falling to a 22-month low this morning. In the early going, September S&P 500 futures are trading at 1393.75, down 20.75.
Crude Oil: Lead month September Crude Oil gave back all of yesterday’s gains and then some in early trade, as fears of a global economic slowdown tied to falling equity markets caused fresh selling in the Crude market. This comes despite yesterday’s weekly EIA report showing U.S. Crude inventories falling by a larger-than-expected 5.17 million barrels last week. However, traders will be watching the track of Hurricane Dean, which is located about 500 miles east of Barbados early this morning. Though it is still too early to tell if the refinery operations along the U.S. Gulf Coast will be affected by this storm, traders are preparing for increased volatility in the Crude market going into the weekend. In early trade, September Crude Oil stands at $71.46, down $1.87.
Mike Zarembski, Senior Commodity Analyst
Economic Data Scheduled for Thursday, August 16, 2007
(All times in U.S. Central Time)
U.S.
7:30 AM: July Housing Starts (Consensus 1.405 million)
7:30 AM: July Building Permits (Consensus 1.400 million)
7:30 AM: Initial Claims for week ending 8/11 (Consensus 315,000)
11:00 AM: Philadelphia Fed for August (Consensus 8.0)
