BHP Billiton (NYSE:BHP) said it will close its loss incurring Norwich Park metallurgical coal mine, just a day before another round of strikes was due to hit Norwich Park and other mines BHP jointly owns with Mitsubishi.BHP also approved an initial $708 million funding for the Gulf of Mexico’s Mad Dog Phase 2 project that may produce about 130,000 bpd.
In trading on Monday, computers shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 1.4%. Leading the group were shares of Gtsi (GTSI), up about 47.1% and shares of Stratasys (SSYS) up about 2.5% on the day.
The selection of the Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) vs. Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) trial over whether Google violated Java patents is scheduled for today.Oracle has reduced its ambitions, after having demanded $6.1 billion in damages for the alleged seven patent violations.Meanwhile, Google says damages should be under $100 million.
Teavana (NYSE:TEA) shares are up 3% on news that the company agreed to acquire the assets of Teaopia in a cash deal valued at $26.9 million.The company doesn’t expect an impact on earnings in FY 2012, excluding the transaction and integration expenses and accretive by $0.03 – $0.04 in FY 2013.
By CountingPips.com
The latest Commitments of Traders (COT) report, released on Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), showed that large futures speculators decreased their overall US dollar long positions last week for a third consecutive week while Canadian dollar positions showed the largest upward movement and reached their highest position in over a year.
Non-commercial futures traders, usually hedge funds and large speculators, decreased their short positions in the euro, Swiss franc and Japanese yen while adding to long positions in the British pound sterling, Canadian dollar, Australian dollar and the Mexican peso. New Zealand dollar long positions dipped for a second straight week.
Individual Currencies:
EuroFX: Currency speculator sentiment improved for a second straight week in the euro currency as euro net short positions or bets against the currency decreased to 106,990 contracts on May 1st from the previous week’s total of 113,367 net short contracts.
The COT report is published every Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and shows futures positions as of the previous Tuesday. It can be a useful tool for traders to gauge investor sentiment and to look for potential changes in the direction of a currency or commodity. Each currency contract is a quote for that currency directly against the U.S. dollar, where as a net short amount of contracts means that more speculators are betting that currency to fall against the dollar and net long position expect that currency to rise versus the dollar. The graphs overlay the forex spot closing price of each Tuesday when COT trader positions are reported for each corresponding spot currency pair.
GBP: British pound sterling positions rose last week for a third consecutive week and landed at their highest level in just about a year. British pound positions saw a total of 16,493 net long contracts on May 1st following a total of 7,536 net long contracts registered on April 24th. Pound positions have continued to rise higher and are now at the highest level since May 10th 2011 when long contracts equaled 18,118.
JPY: Japanese yen speculative contracts improved last week for a third consecutive week as Yen positions totaled 50,173 net short contracts reported on May 1st following a total of 55,903 net short contracts on April 24th.
CHF: Swiss franc speculator positions rose last week for a second straight week after declining for the previous two weeks. Speculator positions for the Swiss currency futures registered a total of 14,311 net short contracts on May 1st following a total of 16,641 net short contracts as of April 24th.
CAD: Canadian dollar positions once again advanced higher and reached their highest level since March of 2011. Canadian dollar positions rose to a total of 70,223 net long contracts as of May 1st following a total of 44,224 long contracts that were reported for April 24th. CAD positions recently surpassed their previous highest level of the year and are at the highest level since March 8th 2011 when long contracts numbered 77,544.
AUD: The Australian dollar long positions improved slightly after decreasing the previous week. Aussie positions rose to a total net amount of 52,280 long contracts on May 1st after falling to 46,041 net long contracts reported as of April 24th. AUD speculative positions on April 10th had reached their lowest level since long positions totaled 32,637 on December 27th 2011.
NZD: New Zealand dollar futures speculator positions declined for second straight week as NZD contracts fell to a total of 8,025 net long contracts as of May 1st following a total of 9,486 net long contracts on April 24th. NZD contracts on April 17th were at their highest level since March 13 before pulling back last week.
MXN: Mexican peso speculative contracts trended slightly higher after falling for three straight weeks. Peso long positions increased to a total of 42,045 net long speculative positions as of May 1st following a total of 40,208 long contracts that were reported for April 24th.
COT Currency Data Summary as of May 1, 2012
Large Speculators Net Positions vs. the US Dollar
EUR -106990
GBP +16493
JPY -50173
CHF -14311
CAD +70223
AUD +52280
NZD +8025
MXN +42045
AstraZeneca (NYSE:AZN) announced a big acquisition deal on Monday. The U.K. drug maker is planning on buying Ardea Biosciences for $1.26 billion in a deal that will expand Astra’s pipeline of new medicines. The deal is in response to stiff competition from companies making cheap generic versions of AstraZeneca’s top-selling drugs. A small, targeted acquisition like this, the company says, will hopefully offset that impact.The biggest part of the acquisition is Ardea’s gout drug lesinurad, which is currently in late-stage trails as a pill. AstraZeneca says it plans to commercialize the drug and sell it in China and Japan. Investors are lukewarm about the acquisition though. Currently, shares of the drug maker are down over 1.5% on the London Stock Exchange.
Friday may 4th. The WALL STREET JOURNAL reports Goldman Sachs (GS) will introduce a bond trading platform where it will charge lower fees than on typical bond trades, sources say, to help keep customers looking at trading venues being set up by BlackRock (BLK) and other companies. PepsiCo (PEP) is bringing back Michael Jackson to try to pump up its flagship cola, three years after the singer’s death. In a deal with Jackson’s estate, the company says it will roll out 1Bill Pepsi cans with a silhouette of the king of pop. Reuters released that China agreed to increase the limit on foreign ownership in domestic joint venture securities firms to 49%, allowing these brokerages to trade commodities and financial futures. Reuters also reports this morning that United Airlines (UAL) is planning an order for at least 100 Boeing (BA) 737 narrow body jets potentially worth $10B at list prices. Bloomberg reports that oil slid to its lowest level in over three weeks, heading for a weekly decline before the monthly U.S. jobs report. After services and manufacturing output in the euro region fell more than expected, Bloomberg also reports that Norway”s sovereign wealth fund sold all its Irish and Portuguese government bonds after rejecting the Greek debt swap, warning that Europe faces considerable challenges.
Aon (NYSE:AON) reported Q1 EPS of $0.98, missing estimates of $1.04.Revenues in the quarter came in at $2.84 billion, vs. estimates of $2.83 billion.The company reported risk solutions revenue $1.91 billion vs. $1.82 billion Quarter over quarter, $1.85 billion Year over year.SmarTrend is bullish on shares of AON and our subscribers were alerted to buy on January 03, 2012 at $47.35. The stock has risen 8.4% since the alert was issued.
Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) reported Q1 EPS of $0.38, topping estimates of $0.36. The results excluded the $420 million related to the IGCC project. The company was working with regulators on the successful completion of a merger with Progress Energy and it targets July 1 as the closing date. Duke reaffirmed its 2012 EPS forecast of $1.40-$1.45, vs. estimates of $1.42. Duke Energy Corporation is an energy company located primarily in the Americas that owns an integrated network of energy assets. The Company manages a portfolio of natural gas and electric supply, delivery, and trading businesses in the United States and Latin America. SmarTrend currently has Duke Energy in a Downtrend. Since 2008, SmarTrend subscribers trading Duke Energy using our alerts outperformed the stock by 67%. We are monitoring these developments and will alert subscribers to any change in trend.
Warner Chilcott (NASDAQ:WCRX) reported Q1 EPS of $1.16, topping estimates of $0.17. Revenues in the quarter fell 9.5% year-over-year to $685 million, missing estimates by $37 million. Warner Chilcott sees FY 2012 adjusted CNI per share $3.30-$3.40, vs. its prior guidance of $3.60-$3.70. The company sees revenues of $2.4 billion – $2.5 billion, vs. its prior guidance of $2.5 billion – $2.6 billion. SmarTrend is bullish on shares of Warner Chilcott and our subscribers were alerted to buy on April 25, 2012 at $17.30. The stock has risen 25.1% since the alert was issued. Warner Chilcott PLC is a pharmaceutical company. The Company is focused on marketing, selling, developing and manufacturing branded prescription pharmaceutical products in women’s healthcare and dermatology in the United States.
