Morning Call For Friday, March 2

OVERNIGHT MARKETS AND NEWS

Mar E-mini S&Ps (ESH18 -0.45%) this morning are down -0.50% and European stocks are down -1.57% at a 2-week low. Stocks are falling on concern economic growth and global trade may suffer because of the planned U.S. tariffs on foreign metal imports. European Commission President Juncker said Europe will respond “firmly” to any new duties. An unexpected decline in German Jan retail sales also pressured European stocks. The slump in equities has fueled safe-haven demand for government debt as the 10-year T-note yield fell to a 3-week low of 2.79% and the German 10-year bund yield dropped to a 5-week low of 0.607%. Asian stocks settled lower: Japan -2.50%, Hong Kong -1.48%, China -0.59%, Taiwan -0.81%, Australia -0.74%, Singapore -0.99%, South Korea -1.44%, India closed for holiday. Asian stocks tumbled due to trade concerns as the Nikkei Stock Index fell to a 2-week low. A surge in the yen to a 1-1/4 year high against the dollar also undercut Japanese stocks after BOJ Governor Kuroda said the BOJ will start thinking about how to exit QE around 2019.

The dollar index (DXY00 -0.44%) is down -0.38%. EUR/USD (^EURUSD) is up +0.33%. USD/JPY (^USDJPY) is down -0.76% at a 1-1/4 year low after BOJ Governor said the BOJ may exit its stimulus program next year.

Jun 10-year T-note prices (ZNM18 -0.05%) are down -0.5 of a tick.

BOJ Governor Kuroda said “members of the policy board and I think that prices will move to reach our 2% target in around 2019” so the BOJ will start thinking about how to exit its monetary stimulus program around the fiscal year starting in Apr 2019.

The Japan Jan jobless rate fell -0.3 to a 24-3/4 year low of 2.4%, better than expectations of no change at 2.8%. The Jan job-to-applicant ratio was unch at 1.59, weaker than expectations of +0.01 to 1.60.

Eurozone Jan PPI of +0.4% m/m and +1.5% y/y was slightly weaker than expectations of +0.4% m/m and +1.6% y/y with the +1/5% y/y gain the smallest year-on-year increase in 14 months.