On Deck Next Week: Wal-Mart Reports

• November 12, 2010, 6:11 PM ET

By Kathy Shwiff

Everett

• Dow Jones Industrial Average components Wal-Mart and Home Depot Inc. and nearly two dozen other companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index will report quarterly results next week. Wal-Mart and Home Depot both report Tuesday, a day after Nordstrom Inc. and Lowe’s Cos. Target Corp. will post results Wednesday, followed by Gap Inc. and Sears Holding Corp. on Thursday.
• General Motors is expected to price its initial public offering of 365 million shares Wednesday evening. The estimated price range is $26 to $29. The IPO allows the U.S. to begin offloading the stake it acquired through last year’s rescue of the auto industry. GM will have about 1.5 billion shares outstanding afterward, and the Treasury Department’s stake will fall to as little as 41% from the current 61%.
• Measures of wholesale and consumer inflation likely rose for October, according to economists surveyed by Briefing.com. The Producer Price Index, to be released Tuesday, and Consumer Price Index, out Wednesday, are expected to rise 0.7% and 0.3%, respectively. For September, the PPI grew 0.4% and the CPI ticked up 0.1%.
• The government will report on October retail sales and September business inventories Monday and will release October industrial-production figures Tuesday. Data on October housing starts and building permits will be issued Wednesday.
• On Thursday, the nonprofit Conference Board will release its October index of leading indicators and the Philadelphia Fed will report on regional manufacturing activities.
• Among appearances by Federal Reserve officials: Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker will speak Sunday; Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart is on tap Tuesday; St. Louis Fed President James Bullard will speak Wednesday; Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota appears Thursday in Chicago; Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser will speak Thursday in Washington; and Chairman Ben Bernanke will speak next Friday at the 6th European Central Bank Banking Conference in Frankfurt.
• President Obama has invited Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) and other congressional leaders to the White House on Thursday to talk about Bush-era tax cuts and other issues. Even though Republicans chalked up big gains during the midterm elections, those new members won’t be sworn in until January, and Democrats will still control both chambers of Congress until then. Obama will need support from at least a few Senate Republicans to pass any bill related during the lame-duck session, giving McConnell a direct say on what any deal might look like, especially regarding taxes.

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Commodities Take a Beating

By Carolyn Cui

Those once white-hot commodities were dumped at a startling pace.

The selloff swept across the board, with sugar being the biggest loser. After tumbling 11.3% on Friday, sugar’s loss for the last two days was compounded to more than 20%. Elsewhere, grains – corn, wheat and soybeans – all fell more than 5%, with energy and precious metals posting relatively modest losses. Lean hogs and orange juice were the best performers: down 0.3% and 0.6%, respectively.

“There are a lot of small players in these markets,” said Kurt Kinker, chief market analyst at Mirus Futures, a commodities broker in Chicago. “It’s no longer about supply and demand. It’s more trading for trading’s sake,” he said.

Sugar, although a relatively niche market, is viewed as a “trend-leading” commodity, he said. Many traders are watching it to gauge where the commodity markets are moving.

The real test will come next week. “If these moves are carried through, there will be more downside.”
In the sugar market, there is a standoff between producers and consumers, with both sides hesitant to commit at current prices, said Marcos Nogueira, a sugar broker at FCStone Group in Brazil. Producers are still in the process of “recovering themselves,” while consumers are bidding prices lower and lower, he said. The selling force mainly came from trading houses, who were long sugar but didn’t actually want the physical sweet stuff.

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Data Points: Energy & Metals

By MarketBeat Staff

Nymex crude for December delivery fell $1.97 per barrel this week, or 2.27% to $84.88.

• Worst week since the week ending September 17.
• Today, it is down $2.93, or 3.34%.
• Largest one day dollar and percentage decline since October 19.
• Intraday, it traded as high as $87.85, and as low as $84.52.

Comex gold for November delivery declined $31.90 per troy ounce this week, or 2.28% to $1365.40.

• Snaps a two week winning streak.
• Today it declined $37.70, or 2.69%.

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Data Points: U.S. Markets

By MarketBeat Staff

Dow Industrials, down 251.50 points this week, or 2.20% to 11192.58.

• Biggest weekly point and percent drop in three months, since the week ended August 13.
• Seventh largest weekly drop this year.
• Today, it fell 90.52 points, or 0.80%.
• Today’s top contributors to the Dow’s movement and their point contribution: DIS (14.30), INTC (2.42), KFT (1.21), KO (0.91), PG (-0.23).
• Today’s laggers and their point contribution: BA (-17.26), IBM (-12.79), CAT (-10.60), HPQ (-6.43), MCD (-6.43).

Nasdaq Composite, fell 60.77 points this week, or 2.36% to 2518.21.

• Snaps a string of five consecutive weeks of gains.
• Largest weekly point and percent drop since the week ended August 13.
• Today, it fell 37.31 points, or 1.46%.

S&P 500, down 26.64 points this week, or 2.17% to 1199.21.

• Like the Nasdaq, this is its first weekly decline in six weeks.
• Biggest point and percent drop since the week ended August 13.
• Today, it fell 14.33 points, or 1.18%.

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Commodities Take a Beating

By Carolyn Cui

Those once white-hot commodities were dumped at a startling pace.

The selloff swept across the board, with sugar being the biggest loser. After tumbling 11.3% on Friday, sugar’s loss for the last two days was compounded to more than 20%. Elsewhere, grains – corn, wheat and soybeans – all fell more than 5%, with energy and precious metals posting relatively modest losses. Lean hogs and orange juice were the best performers: down 0.3% and 0.6%, respectively.

“There are a lot of small players in these markets,” said Kurt Kinker, chief market analyst at Mirus Futures, a commodities broker in Chicago. “It’s no longer about supply and demand. It’s more trading for trading’s sake,” he said.

Sugar, although a relatively niche market, is viewed as a “trend-leading” commodity, he said. Many traders are watching it to gauge where the commodity markets are moving.

The real test will come next week. “If these moves are carried through, there will be more downside.”
In the sugar market, there is a standoff between producers and consumers, with both sides hesitant to commit at current prices, said Marcos Nogueira, a sugar broker at FCStone Group in Brazil. Producers are still in the process of “recovering themselves,” while consumers are bidding prices lower and lower, he said. The selling force mainly came from trading houses, who were long sugar but didn’t actually want the physical sweet stuff.

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Data Points: Energy & Metals

By MarketBeat Staff

Nymex crude for December delivery fell $1.97 per barrel this week, or 2.27% to $84.88.

• Worst week since the week ending September 17.
• Today, it is down $2.93, or 3.34%.
• Largest one day dollar and percentage decline since October 19.
• Intraday, it traded as high as $87.85, and as low as $84.52.

Comex gold for November delivery declined $31.90 per troy ounce this week, or 2.28% to $1365.40.

• Snaps a two week winning streak.
• Today it declined $37.70, or 2.69%.

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Growth Stalls, Prices Rise Along Troubled Edge of Euro-Zone

By Dave Kansas

This morning’s economic readings out of Europe don’t make for great news. In the troubled peripheral countries, it looks like stagflation is making something of a mild comeback.

Jobless rates are already high, but now industrial production is dropping more than expected and prices are jumping. Might be time to get the brown suits, disco balls and platform shoes out of the attic.

Euro-zone industrial production fell in September by the largest margin since March 2009, according to Dow Jones. Even mighty Germany showed a decline, undercutting the view that European’s biggest economy was sailing briskly out of the recession.

Eurostat said industrial production dropped 0.9% from August, well off expectations for a 0.3% gain. The month’s reading was 5.2% higher than one year ago.

Among fiscally troubled countries, the numbers painted a dark picture. Greek industrial production dropped 5.4%, Portugal 4.7%. Figures for Ireland aren’t available until next month.

At the same time, prices are on the rise in troubled countries. Spain’s consumer price index rose to 2.3% for the year in October even as the country said growth had ground to halt. Portugal saw CPI also rise to 2.3% on the year while Ireland’s CPI measure rose 0.7% last month – the biggest one-month gain in almost three years.

The combination of slow growth or recession combined with high jobless rates and inflation is an economic nightmare that for some reason spurs unbelievably bad fashion choices. Couture Torture up ahead?

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