Week of Mar 28 2014- Weekly Recap & The Week Ahead
“If you take emotion – would be, could be, should be – out of it, and look at what is, and quantify it, I think you have a big advantage over most human beings.” — John Henry
1. Chinese factory activity contracted for the fifth straight month in March — “flash” manufacturing PMI slipped to 48.1 from 48.5 in February. This figure misses consensus of 48.7. HSBC stated “Weakness is broadly based with domestic demand softening further,”.
2. U.S. lawmakers to weigh speeding up LNG exports to help Europe, Ukraine — Reuters, U.S. lawmakers will hear testimony on loosening restrictions on liquefied natural gas exports so that abundant American supplies could help reduce Ukraine and Europe’s dependence on Russian gas. Currently, the U.S. Department of Energy must give permission to export natural gas to all but a handful of countries with free trade agreements with the United States.
3. U.S. fourth-quarter GDP nudged up to 2.6% — MarketWatch, the economy’s growth in the final three months of 2013 was bumped up to a 2.6% annual pace from 2.4%, mainly because of higher spending on health care. Final sales of U.S.-produced goods and services were also lifted to show a 2.7% advance instead of 2.3%.
4. Federal Reserve approved 25 out of 30 Banks capital-allocation plans — the Fed rejected those from Citigroup (C), Zions Bancorp (ZION), RBS’s (RBS) Citizens subsidiary – which could affect the divestiture of the unit – HSBC North America (HSBC) and Santander Holdings (SAN). Most banks announced repurchase programs and dividends.
5. Baxter International (BAX) announced plans to split into two companies – Baxter (BAX) will split into a biopharmaceuticals and the other on medical products. The biopharma operation – developing treatments for hemophilia and other bleeding disorders, immune deficiencies, burns and shock. This unit generated revenue of $6B in 2013. Baxter (BAX) expects to make a tax-free distribution of shares in the business by mid-2015.
6. End-Of-Quarter “Window Dressing” — courtesy of Bespoke, about 70% of the best performing stocks outperform the indexes in the last week of the quarter based on a 5-year study. Fund managers typically buy best performing stocks right before end-of-quarter to show off winners in its fund holdings.
The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com:
Tags: Window Dressing