Stocks, Bonds Sprinting Ahead After tame ECI
By
Justin Lahart
Staff Reporter
The
Employment Cost Estimate
is in and traders like what they see.
Wages, salaries and benefits are up 0.6% for the first quarter, far below the 0.9% that economists expected.
"We got a real good number," says one trader.
No kidding. The ECI cheered the futures and bond markets. The
S&P 500
futures, down before the number came out, are up 8.95, well above fair value. The 30-year Treasury bond is soaring -- it's up 1 6/32 at 95 6/32, driving the yield down to 7.014%. What happens if it breaks 7.00? March
Durable Goods Order
down 3% (a opposed to expectations of a flat number) added to the general giddiness.
"We'll follow the bond market higher," says one trader. "Still Friday's important. I'm not sure this one number will change the tide, but it will certainly get things going in the right direction." April employment figures come out on Friday.
Traders expect interest rate-sensitive and cyclical stocks to do especially well off today's number.
Pharmacia & Upjohn
reported first-quarter earnings of 37 cents a share, 2 cents shy of
First Call
expectations
PepsiCo
(PEP) - Get Report
posted first-quarter earnings of 27 cents a share, 3 cents ahead of estimates.
Tenneco
(TEN) - Get Report
reported first-quarter earnings of 44 cents a share, 6 cents a share.
Tokyo's markets are closed today in observance of
Midori No Hi
, which, contrary to some people's conjecture, is not a celebration of Japanese figure skater
Midori Ito
, but of the old Emperor's birthday.
Nervousness about today's U.S. economic data and a sell-off in red-chips knocked a bit out of the Hong Kong stock market today. The
Hang Seng
slumped 9.75 to close at 12,600.42.
Wall Street's gains yesterday and the continued strength of the dollar (so much for the
Group of Seven
) have given German shares a boost. The
Dax
closed at 3383.18, up 20.12.
In London, traders took time out from betting on who the Conservative leader will be after Labour's expected win in Thursday's general election (Michael Heseltine, Michael Howard, Michael Portillo are tied with the odds at 7/2 -- at least we have a good idea of what the new leader's first name will be) to send the
FTSE
above 4,400 for the first time since March 13. Volume remains low ahead of the election, and investors are skittish about the expected, post-election U.K. rate-hike. The FTSE is up 4407.50, up 17.80. The index has gained more than 20 points since the ECI came out.
