(RTTNews.com) – Wall Street stocks may open Monday’s session on a slightly negative note, as commodities continue to see weakness amid the dollar strength. The movements largely reflect lackluster risk sentiment. Asian stocks also had a nervy run earlier in the global trading day amid very little corporate and economic news flow. Meanwhile, the European markets are seeing volatility. M&A news and commodity prices may be market drives in today’s session, although traders gripped by rate hike fears may prefer to wait for Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s
speech on Friday.
As of 6:15 am ET, the Dow futures are declining 9 points, the S&P 500 futures are moving down 0.75 point and the Nasdaq 100 futures are losing 1 point.
U.S. stocks ended the week ended August 19th mixed, amid reaction to fears of a rate hike triggered by some Fed comments, oil’s rally and dovish FOMC minutes.
Also on the radar will be a trio of housing market readings, namely the Commerce Department’s new home sales report for July due on Tuesday, the National Association of Realtors’ existing home sales report for July due on Wednesday and the Federal Housing Market Association’s house price index for June, also due on Wednesday.
Traders may also focus on the Commerce Department’s durable goods orders report for July due on Thursday, the weekly jobless claims report and the University of Michigan’s preliminary U.S. consumer sentiment index for August, scheduled to be released on Friday.
Flash estimate of Markit’s U.S. manufacturing and non-manufacturing PMIs for August, the results of a few regional manufacturing surveys, preliminary goods trade balance data for July, the Commerce Department’s preliminary second quarter GDP data and the results of the Treasury auctions of 2-year, 5-year and 7-year notes round up the economic events of the week.
The Chicago Federal Reserve is set to release the results of its national activity survey at 8:30 am ET. In July, the national activity index based on the survey came in at 0.16.
In major corporate news, Pfizer (PFE) is reportedly close to a deal to buy Medivation ( MDVN ), developer prostate drug Xtandi, for about $ 14 billion, according to a report that appeared on FT. Earlier in April, Medivation spurned an unsolicited takeover offer from Sanofi ( SNY ).
Separately, Pfizer announced that the FDA has approved TROXYCA ER extended release capsules for oral use fir the management of pain, severe enough to require daily, round-the-clock, long term opioid treatment.
Viacom (VIAB) announced that its CEO Philippe Dauman
will step down immediately following an agreement with the Redstone family. The company also announced the appointment of Thomas Dooley
, the company’s COO, to the position of CEO on an interim basis until September 30th, when its fiscal year ends.
A Nikkei report said that Intersil ( ISIL ) may be bought over by Japan’sRenesas Electronics.
The major Asian markets ended mixed, impacted by the lackluster performance by Wall Street stocks last Friday and the retreat in oil prices.
The Japanese market rose modestly, as the yen weakened modestly. The Nikkei 225 average ended up 52.37 points or 0.32 percent at 16,598. After nervously going around the unchanged line till late afternoon trading, Australia’s All Ordinaries lost 13.10 points or 0.23 percent before ending at 5,5612.
China’s Shanghai Composite Index ended at 3,085, down 23.30 points or 0.75 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index added 60.69 points or 0.26 percent before ending at 22,998.
On the economic front, data released by the Japan Chain Stores Association showed that supermarket sales in Japan rose 0.2 percent year-over-year in July following a 0.5 percent drop in June. On a monthly basis, sales rose 4.8 percent.
After starting lower, European markets saw volatility in early trading. However, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index have moved solidly higher thereafter and are currently firmly in the green. After the recovery, the FTSE Index is still going about a nervous run and is currently lower.
In major corporate news, Syngenta shares rallied after the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment approved its impending takeover by China’s ChemChina for $ 44 billion, clearing a major hurdle for the consummation of the deal. France’sTeleperformance agreed to buy LanguageLine for $ 1.52 billion.
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