By James Langton
(October 12 – 09:00 EST) – Turkey-fuelled traders return to work today to find little to be thankful for in the capital markets. Europe is down. Asia was mostly negative and the S&P futures were down through the morning.
While our markets were closed yesterday, New Yorkers were trading. The Dow closed up a couple of points, and the Nasdaq jumped 29 to a new all-time high. The Dow was up as much as 45 at one point, after a benign speech from U.S. Federal Reserve Board chair Alan Greenspan. Nevertheless U.S. rate concerns continue to afflict the market.
Much of the economic focus will be on the Producer Price Index, due out Friday, in the U.S. While Canadians should get some indication of the shape of the next federal budget out of today’s Throne speech, most important is the Ottawa’s position on tax cuts.
Rate worries are alive and well in Europe after reports that consumer prices rose strongly in France and the U.K. in September. The FTSE 100 is holding up best, down just 2 points in London. The German DAX is off 25 points and the French CAC 40 is down about 38.
In Japan, markets closed up, but the yen rose against the U.S. dollar and the Euro on growing suspicion that the Bank of Japan won’t move its money supply to weaken the Yen. Still the Nikkei closed up 29 points. While a very thin trade in Hong Kong produced a big drop, closing down 233 points.
In other business news, crude oil prices are up 3% on optimism about high winter fuel demands. Gold stocks are rumoured to be in play, after a bid emerged for Ashanti Goldfields over the weekend, and AngloGold beat a bid by Delta Gold for Acacia Resources. It is rumoured that Placer Dome may bid for Delta.