Month: September 2012

This morning, Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Suntrust Banks (STI) from overweight to neutral citing valuation. Shares of STI are approaching the firm’s $30 price target, leaving less upside for investors.

Health Insurance Company UnitedHealth Group will be replacing Kraft Foods on the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The switch will happen at the start of trading on September 24th.The Dow Jones Industrial Average is an index of 30 public companies and what they did during a trading session in the stock market. The index is often used to judge the state of the stock market in general.Kraft Foods was added to the average four years ago in 2008, when it took AIG’s spot on the index. The replacement will not affect the level of the index, which is nearing a record.

One of America’s biggest banks could soon become smaller. According to the Wall Street Journal, Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) is planning on cutting 16,000 jobs by the end of the year in an effort to trim the bank’s size and make it more profitable. The newspaper said the reductions were outlined in a document given to top management. No official announcement by the bank yet but this information could be seen as a positive move. Since Brian Moynihan took over as Chief Executive Officer, reductions have caused a drop of 7% in assets to a recent $2.6 trillion. Although the job cuts most likely mean the closing of more operations at the bank and therefore more reduction in assets, it doesn’t mean that the bank won’t turn even more of a profit. Investors will just have to wait and see what happens next. This rumor though has sparked some interest in the stock this morning. Bank of America is up over 1% to $9.30.

Protests against a film which denigrates the Prophet Mohammad continued on Sunday, with protesters in Iran, Lebanon and Greece calling for the film-makers to face punishment.

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 added to their overall US dollar short positions last week while cutting down on euro short positions to bring euro contracts to their best level since November 2011.

Non-commercial large futures traders, including hedge funds and large speculators, increased their total US dollar short position to a total of $10.05 billion on September 18th from a total short position of $6.18 billion on September 11th, according to the CFTC COT data and calculations by Reuters which calculates the dollar positions against the euro, British pound, Japanese yen, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar and the Swiss franc.

Individual Currencies:

EuroFX: Currency speculator sentiment for the euro increased last week for a second straight week and brought euro positions to their best level since November 2011. Euro net short positions or bets against the currency fell to 73,482 contracts on September 18th from the previous week’s total of 93,658 net short contracts on September 11th. This is the 2nd week that short contracts have been under 100,000 since April 2nd when positions totaled 79,480 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, a net short amount of contracts means that more speculators are betting that currency to fall against the dollar and a 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 surged higher last week after improving slightly the week before. British pound sterling speculative positions totaled 14,412 net long contracts on September 18th following a total of 4,366 net short contracts on September 11th. British pound positions are now on the positive side and at their best level since May 15th.

JPY: Japanese yen speculative contracts fell after increasing for three consecutive weeks and bringing yen positions to the highest level since February. Japanese yen positions declined to a total of 15,476 net long contracts reported on September 18th following a total of 32,773 net long contracts on September 11th.

CHF: Swiss franc speculator positions rose for a second straight week and improved to the best position since December 2011. Speculator positions for the Swiss currency futures registered a total of 4,527 net short contracts on September 18th following a total of 8,967 net short contracts as of September 11th. Franc contracts are now at their best level since December 19th 2011 when positions reached 3,136 short contracts.

CAD: Canadian dollar positions continued to rise higher for an eighth consecutive week and surged to the best level since at least before 2010. Canadian dollar positions increased to a total of 111,881 net long contracts as of September 18th following a total of 101,860 net short contracts that were reported for September 11th. The Canadian currency positions have recently easily passed the previous highest levels of 2012 that was recorded on May 1st when long positions equaled 70,223 contracts.

AUD: The Australian dollar positions rose slightly last week to increase for two consecutive weeks. Aussie speculative futures positions increased to a total net amount of 69,246 long contracts on September 18th after totaling 68,259  net long contracts as of September 11th. Australian dollar are just below their most recent high level that was on August 21st when long positions equaled 86,882.

NZD: New Zealand dollar speculator positions increased after declining for three consecutive weeks. NZD contracts rose to a total of 16,605 net long contracts as of September 18th following a total of 10,032 net long contracts on September 11th.

MXN: Mexican peso speculative contracts dipped slightly last week after surging to a new yearly high the previous week. Peso positions decreased to a total of 118,147 net long speculative positions as of September 18th following a total of 122,243 long contracts that were reported for September 11th.

Microsoft has lowered the price of its best selling Kinect Xbox accessory. The tech giant announced today that the motion control device will now cost $109.99 down from $149.99, making for a slash of $40.The Microsoft Kinect is a video game peripheral that allows players to forgo traditional gaming controllers and instead command games with their bodies. The device can detect a wide range of movements from up to two people at once. Recently, there have been numerous rumors of a new-and-improved Kinect in development, not to mention a new Xbox console, and it stands to reason that this price drop could signal an upcoming announcement.

This thirty eighth trading week of 2012 comes to a close with investors cheering Apple (AAPL) higher after a very successful launch of the new iPhone5. Hi.

Pandora Media Inc. (NYSE:P), the online radio that predicts listener music preferences, is down over 16% in trading this morning, on the news that Apple is planning to develop a competing music streaming service. Apple’s potential service would work on its iPhone and iPad, as well as on Mac computers and laptops running Windows, according to the Wall Street Journal. Prior to this news, the Oakland, California-based company was doing well– its shares had grown 26% this year, and it had been able to hold off rivals like Spotify. But it is difficult to compete with the Apple juggernaut.

Super Mario Buys Sovereign Bond The ECB announced its new sovereign bond purchase program called Outright Monetary Transactions or OTM and will buy 1 to 3yr government bonds in the secondary market. The EU Treaty prevents ECB from purchasing government bonds in the primary market, but Article 18 allows it to do so in the secondary market as a tool for monetary policy. Countries who qualify for this program must accept the conditions come with the European Financial Stability Facility/European Stability Mechanism program. Countries will also need to sign a memorandum of understanding on the macroeconomic adjustments. There is no upper limit on quantity and government bonds of Greece, Portugal and Ireland will be qualified once these countries regain their bond market access. ECB will not claim senior creditor status on purchases associated with the OMT and will publish the market value of its holdings on weekly basis. The only thing that wasn’t specified is whether the maximum 3yr tenor is the original or the remaining time to maturity. In other words, we don’t know if ECB will buy something like a 10yr bond that matures in 2015. We will be following this for you, meanwhile please share with us your reaction. The S&P rallied to a 4yr high, what about you? You can send in comments to our show or you can tweet us @FNNOnline.

This morning, Bank of America lowered its price target on shares of Skyworks Solutions (SWKS) to $32 as overseas growth is slowing. With the lower price target, Bank of America slashed its EPS estimates through 2014, but maintained its buy rating.