Earnings reports from major U.S. banks and the easing of some global macroeconomic concerns

Earnings reports from major U.S. banks and the easing of some global macroeconomic concerns has investors feeling somewhat upbeat this morning. On Friday, JP Morgan and Wells Fargo released better-than-expected quarterly results that have since been followed up by better-than-expected results from Citigroup. Shares of the country’s third-largest bank rose after reporting earnings of 95 cents per share on revenue of $18.6 billion. Traders are hoping the trend of positive earnings reports will continue but in the meantime they will be positioning themselves ahead of Fed Chairman Bernanke’s two-day congressional testimony that begins tomorrow. They’ll be looking for signs that the Fed is ready to initiate more stimulus measures to get the economy heading in the right direction but unless economic data indicates the need for more central bank intervention it doesn’t seem likely that the Fed will act. U.S. retail sales data did decline for a third consecutive month having fallen .5% in June. Expectations were for a .2% increase. Chinese GDP data released last week did show that growth in the world’s #2 economy is slowing but according to some analyst, it’s not as bad as it looks. Chinese Prime Minister Jiabao acknowledged that the economy in China is slowing and that they will continue to face struggles but that the country is ready to do more. “Political Headwinds” are causing some concern regarding the implementation of the European Stability Mechanism but for now things seem to be stable. Spanish 10-year bond yields remain below 7% and are only up 9 basis points from last week. U.S. data on business inventories will be released at 10 am EST. Have a great day!

 

Metals	Last	%Change	Low	High
Au-Aug	1589	-0.18%	1577.2	1593.1
Pt-Oct	1420.3	-1.03%	1414.8	1441.4
Pd-Sep	579.2	-1.10%	577.50	586.00
Ag-Sep	27.220	-0.54%	26.860	27.425
London	AM	PM	Minor	PGMs
Au	1584		Rh	1250
Pt	1423	1420	Ru	115
Pd	579	581	Ir	1100
Ag	27.05	DJI	12722.44	-0.43
Currencies
	USD	EUR	JPY	GBP
USD	0	0.8171	78.749	0.6406
EUR	1.22316	0	96.325	0.78386
JPY	0.01267	1.0379	0	0.008127
GBP	1.5603	1.2755	122.883	0
Oil	Last	%Change	Low	High
Brent - Sep	102.18	0.74%	100.95	102.39
WTI - Sep	87.54	0.04%	86.81	87.83
*THESE PRICES ARE FOR INDICATION ONLY CALL FOR QUOTES