Markets Overnight: Groundhog Day for SPX Futures

by Enis October 3, 2013 4:24 am • Commentary

Overnight price action in SPX futures similar to the last few days.  After no progress was made on the government shutdown after talks between the President and Congressional leaders, futures leaked lower, though off their worst levels around 7 pm EDT last night.  Futures indicate a -0.4% open for the SPX as of now.

  1. Asian Stocks Up, Chinese Services PMI 55.4, Japan Only Red on Board – Again, almost an identical situation to Wednesday’s overnight price action.  The Hang Seng closed up almost 1% after good Chinese data, while Japan closed down 0.1% after a very tight intraday range.  India and Taiwan were the best performing markets, up nearly 2% overnight.
  2. European Stocks Unchanged, Services PMI’s Inline – European Services PMI data came in basically as expected, with the composite at 52.2 vs. 52.1 expected.  Italy was stronger than expected, and it’s the best performing European market for the 3rd straight day.  The Euro made a new 6 month high overnight.
  3. Metals and Oil Lower, Dollar Mixed – After a strong move higher for gold, silver, copper, and oil yesterday, all 4 commodities are lower overnight.  The dollar is down vs. the Euro, and up vs. the Yen, mixed vs. other major currencies.  Treasuries are slightly lower as well.
  4. TSLA trading below 20 day moving average in pre-market – Normally, I’d laugh at a headline like this, but TSLA has only closed below its 20 day ma on one day (July 16th) since late March, and is the best performing stock in the Nasdaq 100 index by a long shot.  Its intraday low yesterday was almost exactly at its 20 day moving average, around 175.60.  The stock is currently trading around $174 in the pre-market.
  5. Jobless Claims at 8:30 am EDT, ISM Non-Manufacturing at 10:00 am – The ISM Services number is expected at 57.0, below last month’s 58.6, but still substantially higher than most of the past 10 years.  The Payrolls release for tomorrow is likely cancelled due to the shutdown.