Avatti
8:30 am – Thursday, December 08, 2011
-S&P +0.08%.
-10-yr -0.12%.
-Euro 1.344 +0.05% vs. dollar.
-Crude +0.44% to $100.94.
-Gold +0.15% to $1747.35.
-European stocks advanced for the first time in three days as the European Central Bank cut its key interest rate by a quarter percentage point to 1 percent.
-Euro-area leaders may agree to provide 150 billion euros ($201 billion) in loans through the International Monetary Fund, opening a new financial pipeline to fight the debt crisis, a European Union diplomat said.
-EU leaders are meeting today for the start of a summit to save the euro and resolve the region’s debt crisis. Officials are expected to arrive in Brussels around 11 AM ET, and begin their working dinner at 1:30 PM ET. The president of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso spoke before the start of the summit, to urge leaders to put aside their differences and find a solution to the crisis. This comes after French president Nicolas Sarkozy and German chancellor Angela Merkel formed a “complete agreement” that involved amending the EU treaty
-Serbia Unexpectedly Cuts Interest Rates to Spur Growth: Economy
- World food prices dropped for a fifth month in November, the longest slide in more than two years, amid signs commodity prices may be “bottoming out,” the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization said.
-Central banks prepare for the end of the euro. While eurozone chief Jean-Claude Juncker today said the euro “is in no way at risk,” some European central banks have reportedly started to weigh their options for a partial, or complete, eurozone breakdown. Ireland, for example, is said to be considering whether it needs to stock up on printing presses in case it must print new notes, while the Swiss are considering alternate currencies to use as a franc reference point.
CORPORATES
-Exxon: Natural gas to replace coal as top power fuel. Exxon’s (XOM) closely-watched outlook report is due out later today. Among the predictions: By 2025, natural gas will replace coal as the leading fuel for generating electricity in the U.S., and will be the world’s No. 2 fuel source overall, while global energy demand will grow 30% by 2040.
COMMODITIES
- The prospect of oil topping $150 a barrel within a year has become the biggest bet in the options market as the U.S. and Europe work to limit Iran’s crude sales.
-Gold May Decline as European Leaders Meet, ETP Holdings Drop
- The biggest slump in wheat prices in three years may have further to go as expanding harvests from Russia to Canada bolster inventories to the most in a decade. The U.S. Department of Agriculture will predict tomorrow a 3.4 percent gain in stockpiles to 202.89 million metric tons by June, according to the average of 16 analyst estimates.
UPGRADES
-Sonova Raised to Buy vs Neutral at Citi
DOWNGRADES
-Las Vegas Sands Cut to ‘Neutral’ at Janney Montgomery, 12-month target price is $48.00 per share.
-Cree Cut to Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley
-Philip Morris Cut to Neutral vs Buy at Nomura
-European Telecoms Cut to Underweight vs Overweight at Barclays
LATAM
-Brazil Central Bank Says Inflation Outlook Improving Amid Global Crisis
-Brazil’s Senate Votes to Increase Compulsory Health Care Spending in 2012
- Brazil’s November Consumer Prices Increase 0.52%, Faster Than Expected
- Petroleo Brasilero SA, Latin America’s largest company by market value, plans to boost oil production by more than 50 percent over the next four years. To do so, it needs helicopters bigger than houses and floating platforms longer than two football fields.
- Petrobras, which produces 90 percent of Brazil’s crude, is spending more than any other oil company as it seeks to develop offshore fields located in the pre-salt area.
- Peru Keeps 4.25% Interest Rate for Seventh Month on Inflation Concern
Thursday’s economic calendar:
7:00 BOE Rate Decision
7:45 ECB Rate Decision
8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
10:00 Wholesale Trade
10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
12:00 PM Quarterly Flow of Funds Report
4:30 PM Money Supply
4:30 PM Fed Balance Sheet
Source(Bloomberg,Yahoo,WSJ,SeekingA)
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