At crucial low and o/n less than 1804 at 1802.5 (see ETH chart)
Probably the govt will come in and buy stocks today.
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7:21 AM 2/11/2016
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Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures plunged on Thursday, with risk-averse investors piling into safe haven assets as another sharp fall in oil prices and cautious comments from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen raised fresh doubts about the health of the economy.
* Yellen on Wednesday acknowledged tightening financial conditions and uncertainty about China and the risks that posed to the U.S. economy, but still kept open the possibility of further interest rate hikes.
* The dollar hit a 16-month low against the yen on Thursday as investors scrambled to buy gold and top-rated bonds and dumped stocks.
* Yellen, whose comments were taken to mean no near-term interest rate hikes, is scheduled to resume her testimony before Congress at 10:00 a.m ET on Thursday.
* A fresh reading on the U.S. labor market is due at 8:30 a.m. A report is expected show jobless claims fell to 281,000 last week.
* Wall Street, which had traded higher for much of the session after Yellen's comments on Wednesday, ended flat as a drop in oil prices weighed on energy and material stocks.
* Oil prices were down yet again on Thursday, with U.S. crude tumbling nearly 3 percent.
Futures snapshot at 7:10 a.m. ET:
* Dow e-minis 1YMc1> were down 313 points, or 1.97 percent, with 67,813 contracts changing hands.
* S&P 500 e-minis were down 37.25 points, or 2.02 percent, with 434,335 contracts traded.
* Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 90 points, or 2.27 percent, on volume of 62,707 contracts.
Thu, 11 Feb 2016 07:43:00 -0500
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Oil falls on U.S. supply record, weak demand outlook
By Simon Falush
LONDON (Reuters) - Oil slid on Thursday, dented by record U.S. crude inventories at the Cushing delivery point, worries about the demand outlook, and as Goldman Sachs said prices would remain low and volatile until the second half of the year.
In a sign that producers are still competing for market share by lowering prices, Iran offered its crude to Asia at a discount to rival OPEC producer Saudi Arabia.
Brent crude futures were down 31 cents at $30.53 per barrel at 0850 GMT.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $26.76 per barrel, down 69 cents and not far off the $26.19 intraday low hit in January that was their weakest price since 2003.
"We're grinding lower on bearish fundamentals," Bjarne Schieldrop, chief commodity analyst at SEB in Oslo, said.
"There's a price fight within OPEC for Asian market share, and there are worries that storage capacity is going to be breached."
He added that oil's fall was also part of a general move in global markets away from riskier assets.
Inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery point for U.S. crude futures rose to an all-time high just shy of 65 million barrels, data from the government's Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed on Wednesday.
Goldman Sachs said the overhang in oil supplies, together with an economic slowdown in China, means prices will remain low until the second half of the year.
"The risks of China growth concerns and oil price downside ... materialised faster than we anticipated," the bank said in a client note.
We expect oil prices will continue to fluctuate between $20 per barrel (operational stress level) and $40 per barrel (financial stress level) with significant volatility and no price trend until 2H2016," it added.
Iran has priced its heavy crude oil in the physical market to Asian buyers slightly cheaper than Saudi Arabia, an unusual move indicating Tehran is willing to offer discounts to regain market share following the lifting of sanctions.
Iran traditionally sets monthly prices to customers in Asia - its biggest market - in parallel with Saudi Arabian crude prices, yet for March it offered buyers its supplies at a discount of 10 cents per barrel compared to Arab Medium, a Saudi grade of similar quality.
Oil prices have fallen almost 75 percent since mid-2014 as competing producers pump 1-2 million barrels of crude every day in excess of demand, just as China's economy grows at its lowest rate in a generation.
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OVERNIGHT MARKETS AND NEWS
March E-mini S&Ps (ESH16 -1.69%) are down sharply by -2.11% at a 3-week low and European stocks are down -3.44% at a 2-1/2 year low after Wednesday's testimony to Congress by Fed Chair Yellen failed to boost confidence in the markets. Crude oil prices (CLH16 -2.95%) are down -4.04% at a 3-week low and copper (HGH16 -0.57%) is down -0.67% at a 2-week low, which has pushed energy producers, miners, and raw-material companies lower with Exxon Mobile sliding more than 5% in pre-market trading. The plunge in global equities has fueled a massive rush into the safe-haven of government bonds as the 10-year UK gilt yield fell to a record low of 1.296%, the 10-year German bund yield declined to a 9-1/2 month low of 0.158% and the 10-year T-note yield dropped to a 2-3/4 year low of 1.62%. The global market turmoil has also pushed global investors into the safe-haven of gold with Apr gold (GCJ16 +3.37%) up +3.93% at an 8-1/2 month high. Asian stocks settled mostly lower: Japan, China and Taiwan closed for holiday. Hong Kong -3.85%, Australia +0.95%, Singapore -1.70%, South Korea -2.83%, India -3.40%.
The dollar index (DXY00 -0.25%) is down -0.40% at a 3-1/2 month low. EUR/USD (^EURUSD) is up +0.41% at a 3-1/2 month high. USD/JPY (^USDJPY) is down -1.83% at a 15-month low.
Mar T-note prices (ZNH16 +0.75%) are up +1-3.5/32 points at a 2-3/4 year nearest-futures high.
U.S. STOCK PREVIEW
Key U.S. news today includes: (1) weekly initial unemployment claims (expected -5,000 to 280,000, previous +8,000 to 285,000) and continuing claims (expected -10,000 to 2.245 million, previous -18,000 to 2.255 million), (2) Fed Chair Janet Yellen's testimony before the Senate Banking Committee to deliver the Fed’s semi-annual monetary policy report to Congress, and (3) the Treasury's auction of $15 billion of 30-year T-bonds.
There are 20 of the S&P 500 companies that report earnings today with notable reports including: Coca-Cola Enterprises (Consensus $0.51), PepsiCo (1.06), Kellogg (0.75), BorgWarner (0.72), AIG (-0.91), CBS (0.92), TripAdvisor (0.33), Wynn Resorts (0.76).
MARKET COMMENTS
Mar E-mini S&Ps (ESH16 -1.69%) this morning are down sharply by -39.00 points (-2.11%) at a 3-week low. Wednesday's closes: S&P 500 -0.02%, Dow Jones -0.62%, Nasdaq +0.47%. The S&P 500 on Wednesday closed little changed. Stocks were boosted by carryover support from a rally in European stocks as concerns over European bank creditworthiness eased after Deutsche Bank AG jumped over 10% when it said it may buy back some of its debt. Stocks also received support from Fed Chair Yellen's comment that the Fed expects the economy to warrant only gradual interest rate increases and that job and wage gains should support incomes and spending. Stocks were undercut by renewed weakness in energy and raw-material producer stocks when the price of crude fell to a 3-week low and the price of copper slid to a 2-week low.
Mar 10-year T-notes (ZNH16 +0.75%) this morning are up +1-3.5/32 points at a 2-3/4 year nearest-futures high. Wednesday's closes: TYH6 +6.00, FVH6 +2.00. Mar T-notes on Wednesday rallied to a new contract high and closed higher on Fed Chair Yellen's comment that the Fed expects the economy to warrant only gradual rate rises. T-notes were also boosted by strong foreign demand for the Treasury's $23 billion 10-year T-note auction where indirect bidders, a proxy for foreign buying, bought 62.3% of the total auction, higher than the 12-auction average of 60.5%.
The dollar index (DXY00 -0.25%) this morning is down -0.386 (-0.40%) at a 3-1/2 month low. EUR/USD (^EURUSD) is up +0.0046 (+0.41%) at a 3-1/2 month high. USD/JPY (^USDJPY) is down -2.07 (-1.83%) at a 15-month low. Wednesday's closes: Dollar Index -0.183 (-0.19%), EUR/USD -0.001 (-0.01%), USD/JPY -1.76 (-1.53%). The dollar index on Wednesday closed lower as Fed Chair Yellen said that the Fed expects the economy to warrant only gradual interest rate increases. USD/JPY plunged to a 1-1/4 year low as the yen continued to see safe-haven demand.
Mar crude (CLH16 -2.95%) this morning is down -$1.11 a barrel (-4.04%) at a 3-weeklow and Mar gasoline (RBH16 +0.51%) is up +0.0029 (+0.31%). Wednesday's closes: CLH6 -0.49 (-1.75%), RBH6 +0.0436 (+4.85%). Mar crude oil and gasoline on Wednesday settled mixed with Mar crude at a 3-week nearest-futures low. Crude oil prices were undercut by the +1.26 million bbl increase in EIA gasoline inventories to a record high 255.6 million bbl (more than expectations of +1.0 million bbl) and by the +523,000 bbl increase in crude supplies at Cushing, OK, delivery point of WTI futures, to a record high 64.7 million bbl. Crude oil prices were boosted by a weaker dollar and by the unexpected -754,000 bbl decline in weekly EIA crude oil inventories, less than expectations for a +3.2 million bbl increase.
GLOBAL EVENT CALENDAR02/11/2016
US 0830 ET Weekly initial unemployment claims expected -5,000 to 280,000, previous +8,000 to 285,000. Weekly continuing claims expected -10,000 to 2.245 million, previous -18,000 to 2.255 million.
0830 ET USDA weekly Export Sales.
1000 ET Fed Chair Janet Yellen appears before the Senate Banking Committee to deliver the Feds semi-annual monetary policy report to Congress.
1100 ET Treasury announces amount of 30-TIPS to be auctioned Feb 18.
1300 ET Treasury auctions $15 billion 30-year T-bonds.
JPN n/a Japanese markets closed for National Foundation Day.
http://www.barchart.com/newsletters/usmorningcall
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