Hurricane worries dominated the news as Irma wreaked havoc in the Caribbean and in Florida.
United States
Stocks hovered around the unchanged mark to finish slightly lower Friday as investors braced for potential damage from Hurricane Irma as it moved toward Florida while declines in Apple and Facebook pushed the Nasdaq down more sharply. The Dow Jones industrials edged up 0.1 percent but the S&P and Nasdaq declined 0.1 percent and 0.6 percent respectively. For the holiday shortened week, the three indices declined — the Dow lost 0.9 percent, the S&P was down 0.6 percent and the Nasdaq declined 1.2 percent. Geopolitical concerns regarding continuing tensions with North Korea also kept investors on edge.
Insurer shares rose broadly, recouping some losses after being under pressure recently as the southeastern United States braced for another powerful hurricane on the heels of hurricane Harvey. Irma, one of the most powerful Atlantic storms in a century, was headed towards Florida Friday. Energy shares declined with oil prices on worries that commerce and energy demand in Florida and the Southeast would be hit hard by Irma. Reinsurers RenaissanceRe Holdings and Everest Re Group declined during the week before stabilizing. Bermuda-based XL Group and Chubb advanced.
Equifax tumbled after the provider of consumer credit scores said personal details of as many as 143 million US consumers were hacked. Kroger retreated after the company reported a quarterly profit drop amid an intensifying grocery price war.
These data reflect observations at 4:00 PM US ET. Gold at the afternoon London fixing was up US$2.75 to US$1,346.25. Copper futures were down 3.24 percent to US$3.04. WTI spot crude was down US$1.61 to US$47.48. Dated Brent spot crude was down 71 US cents to US$53.78. The US dollar was down against the yen, euro, pound, Swiss franc and the Australian dollar. The currency was up against the Canadian dollar. The Dollar Index was down 0.2 percent. The yields on both the US Treasury 30 year bond and the 10 year note were up 1 basis point to 2.67 percent and 2.05 percent respectively.
European markets
European markets were mixed Friday as they looked ahead to some potentially market moving events over the weekend. Hurricane Irma, a category 4 storm, is expected to make landfall in Florida early Sunday. Meanwhile, North Korea is celebrating a holiday on Saturday, which could be a key date for another intercontinental ballistic missile launch. The FTSE was down 0.3 percent on the day and 0.8 percent on the week. The CAC was virtually unchanged (down 1.13 points) and lost 0.2 percent for the week. The SMI was up 0.1 percent but down 0.3 percent on the week. The DAX however, was up both for the day and week (0.1 percent and 1.3 percent respectively).
Air France-KLM gained after reporting higher passenger traffic in August. Greene King sank after the company said it remains cautious about the trading environment and expects the challenges of weaker consumer confidence, increased costs and increasing competition to persist over the near term. Marks & Spencer declined on a broker downgrade. Mining stocks Rio Tinto and Glencore retreated. Vifor rose adding to its gains from the past few sessions. LafargeHolcim also advanced. Credit Suisse and Julius Baer increased while UBS slipped. Bâloise and Swiss Re increased. Zurich Insurance slipped even though it received a broker upgrade.
German exports were up a monthly 0.2 percent in July, after dropping 2.7 percent in June. At the same time imports advanced 2.2 percent in contrast to a 4.4 percent decline in June. As a result, the trade surplus decreased to an adjusted €19.6 billion from €21.2 billion a month ago. France’s July industrial production increased 0.5 percent on the month, reversing a 1.1 percent drop in June. UK July industrial production grew at a slower pace in July due to weak oil and gas extraction. Output was up a monthly 0.2 percent after increasing 0.5 percent in June. The UK July visible trade deficit on total goods trade was essentially unchanged at Stg11.58 billion in July following a smaller revised Stg11.53 billion in June.
Asia Pacific
Asian stocks closed mixed Friday. The US dollar weakened after European Central Bank president Mario Draghi indicated that the future of the bank’s massive stimulus program may be decided in October. The ECB kept interest rates unchanged and also confirmed that its net asset purchases of €60 billion a month would continue until the end of December or beyond, if necessary. Worries about North Korea and the potential impact of Hurricane Irma on the energy markets also weighed on investor sentiment.
China’s Shanghai Composite was virtually unchanged (down 0.26 point) and was down 0.1 percent for the week. China’s trade surplus narrowed from $46.74 billion in July to $41.99 billion in August. On the year, exports slowed from 7.2 percent in July to 5.5 percent in August while imports picked up from 11.0 percent to 13.3 percent. The Hang Seng added 0.5 percent Friday and was down 1.0 percent on the week.
Both the Nikkei and Topix declined after Japan’s second quarter gross domestic product were revised downwards. A stronger yen also weighed on exporters’ shares. The Nikkei was down 0.6 percent and 2.1 percent lower for the week. The Topix was down 0.3 percent and 1.6 percent. The Nikkei Asian Review reported that Apple is now being wooed by all three bidding groups that are vying for Toshiba’s flash memory unit. This includes a consortium having Western Digital as a member. Shares of Toshiba were flat.
The S&P/ASX and All Ordinaries were down 0.3 percent and 0.2 percent respectively. On the week, the former lost 0.9 percent and the latter, 0.8 percent. ANZ Banking, National Australia Bank, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac all declined. Oil Search, Woodside Petroleum and Santos retreated.
The Kospi slipped 0.1 percent and was down 0.6 percent on the week. The Sensex edged up 0.1 percent but retreated 0.6 percent on the week.
Looking forward

Central Bank activities

Sep 14

UK

Bank of England Monetary Policy Announcement

Switzerland

Swiss National Bank Quarterly Monetary Policy Assessment

The following indicators will be released this week…

Europe

Sep 12

UK

Consumer Price Index (August)

Producer Price Index (August)

Sep 13

Eurozone

Industrial Production (July)

UK

Labour Market Report (August)

Sep 14

UK

Retail Sales (August)

Sep 15

Eurozone

Merchandise Trade (July)

Asia Pacific

Sep 11

Japan

Machinery Orders (July)

India

Consumer Price Index (August)

Industrial Production (July)

China

Consumer Price Index (August)

Sep 13

Japan

Producer Price Index (August)

Sep 14

Australia

Labour Market Survey (August)

China

Industrial Production (August)

Retail Sales (August)

Americas

Sep 11

Canada

Housing Starts (August)

Sep 12

United States

JOLTS (August)

Sep 13

United States

Producer Price Index (August)

Sep 14

United States

Initial Unemployment Claims (week ending prior Saturday)

Consumer Price Index (August)

Sep 15

United States

Retail Sales (August)

Empire State Manufacturing Survey (September)

Industrial Production (August)

Consumer Sentiment (September preliminary)

Business Inventories (July)

*Note — all releases are listed in local time.

Source: Fidelity

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