Morning Call For Thursday, March 22

Overnight Markets and News

Jun E-mini S&Ps (ESM18 -0.74%) this morning are down -0.70% and European stocks are down -1.25%, both at 2-week lows, on global trade concerns as a person familiar with the matter said President Trump is set to announce today about $50 billion of tariffs against China over intellectual-property violations. European stocks were also under pressure on signs of a slowdown in manufacturing activity after the Eurozone Mar Markit manufacturing PMI fell -2.0 to 56.6, the slowest pace of expansion in a year. The weaker-than-expected economic data along with the slide in stock prices has fueled demand for government bonds as the 10-year German bund yield fell to a 2-month low of 0.551%. The BOE is expected to maintain its benchmark interest rate at 0.50% and keep its asset purchase target at 435 billion pounds following today’s BOE policy meeting. Asian stocks settled mixed: Japan +0.99%, Hong Kong -1.09%, China -0.53%, Taiwan -0.05%, Australia -0.22%, Singapore -0.56%, South Korea +0.53%, India -0.39%. China’s Shanghai Composite fell to a 2-week low on trade concerns and after the PBOC raised interest rates in open market operations when they sold 10-billion yuan of 7-day reverse repos at 2.55%, up from 2.50% in a previous operation.

The dollar index (DXY00 -0.12%) is down -0.08% at a 1-month low as trade concerns weighed on the dollar. EUR/USD (^EURUSD -0.12%) is down -0.13%. USD/JPY (^USDJPY -0.36%) is down -0.42% at a 2-week low.

Jun 10-year T-note prices (ZNM18 +0-115) are up +12.5 ticks.

The Eurozone Mar Markit composite PMI fell -1.8 to 55.4, weaker than expectations of -0.3 to 56.8 and the slowest pace of expansion in 14 months.

The Eurozone Mar Markit manufacturing PMI fell -2.0 to 56.6, weaker than expectations of -0.5 to 58.1 and the slowest pace of expansion in a year.

The German Mar Markit/BME manufacturing PMI fell -2.2 to 58.4, weaker than expectations of -0.8 to 59.8 and the slowest pace of expansion in 8 months.