MARKET WRAPS
Stocks:
European stocks were lower on Tuesday, with U.S. futures also weaker following a revenue warning from Oracle.
The FTSE100 outperformed other European indexes, boosted by a strong rise in Primark-owner AB Foods after it raised its fiscal 2023 guidance for the second time in the year.
The number of rising stocks in the FTSE100 suggests investor confidence is picking up, AJ Bell said.
U.S. Markets:
Stock futures dipped ahead of Apple's annual marketing event later, which will focus on updating some of its existing product lineup, including the iPhone.
Apple's shares remained steady in premarket trading.
Treasury yields slipped, after having settled at 4.287% on Monday.
Stocks to Watch
Oracle fell more than 9% premarket after it reported quarterly revenue that underwhelmed investors.
Tesla declined 1.1% premarket, a day after shares of the electric-vehicle maker closed with a gain of 10% following an upgrade to the stock from Morgan Stanley.
WestRock rose 8.3% after formally signing an agreement to be acquired by Smurfit Kappa, a deal that creates a paper and packaging company worth about $20 billion. Read more .
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Forex:
The pound and gilt yields fell after U.K. jobs data, the details of which don't necessarily point to further interest-rate rises despite high wage growth, ING said.
Read UK Wages Outstrip Inflation, Despite Signs of Loosening Labor Market
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The dollar steadied after edging lower on Monday and ING said trade should be quiet ahead of Wednesday's U.S. inflation data, adding that it sees risks of higher-than-expected core print.
ING said the safe-haven dollar weakened on Monday as investors "put money back to work in equities.
Energy:
Brent crude oil held close to $90 a barrel for a third day in a row as investors awaited forecasts from OPEC and the IEA on oil demand.
"Technical indicators suggest the recent gains may have run their course for the moment. However, signs of tightness in oil products markets could keep pressure on crude oil," ANZ said.
Metals:
Base metals and gold slipped in early trading as the dollar steadied after recent losses.
The market is optimistic about a post-summer pick-up in Chinese metal demand, ING said, noting better-than-expected Chinese credit data signaled stabilization in household demand for mortgages.
Additionally, a Shanghai Metals Market survey showed that "China's copper cathode production rose 15.5% year-on-year and 6.8% month-on-month to 989,000 tons in August," it added.
DOW JONES NEWSPLUS
EMEA HEADLINES
AB Foods Lifts Guidance on Robust Sales Growth; Sees Primark Margins Improving in FY 2024 - Update
Associated British Foods raised its fiscal 2023 guidance for the second time on the back of robust sales growth across its categories and said it expects clothing retailer Primark's margins to improve in fiscal 2024.
The U.K. conglomerate said Tuesday that it expects adjusted operating profit-the company's preferred metric, which strips out exceptional and other one-off items-for the year ending Sept. 16 to be slightly better than previous expectations, which saw profit moderately ahead of last year's 1.435 billion pounds ($1.79 billion).
A Mall Owner's About-Face: Bet on America's High-End Malls
The European owner of Westfield malls is pulling back from its aggressive plan to sell nearly all its properties and exit from the U.S. market this year, another vote of confidence for the high-end mall business.
Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield said last year that it planned to shed most of its American portfolio by the end of 2023. Now, the Paris-based company intends to hold some of its top-performing malls beyond that self-imposed deadline.
Morocco Quake Death Toll Nears 2,900 as Survival Hopes Dwindle
IMI N'TALA, Morocco-Survivors of a deadly earthquake in rural Morocco tried to gather enough food, water and shelter with the help of mostly private donations, after authorities here accepted aid from only a handful of countries.
Rescue efforts continued on Tuesday, although hopes of finding survivors were dwindling. Foreign workers have pulled up mostly dead bodies from the rubble in the past two days and the few survivors they have detected have been buried deep and difficult to pull out.
GLOBAL NEWS
Small-Caps Are in the Doghouse. What Could Lift Them Out.
Small-cap stocks have struggled this year, but things are looking up for the little guys.
One tailwind is upward earnings revisions, according to RBC Capital Markets.
Amateurs Pile Into 24-Hour Options: 'It's Just Gambling'
Lucas Sommer woke up around the time the stock market opened and, still bleary-eyed, opened his Robinhood app.
He had a hunch it would be a good day for stocks, so he scooped up some options contracts that would profit if the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index rose that day.
Banks Load Up on $1.2 Trillion in Risky 'Hot' Deposits
At midyear, Zions Bancorp reported holding $8.5 billion in brokered deposits, an obscure but costly banking industry product that is drawing attention from regulators. At this time last year, the Salt Lake City-based bank had practically none.
Many industry players view brokered deposits as a double-edged sword. They can be a quick and easy way for a bank to shore up its balance sheet. The deposits are typically much more expensive because banks have to pay higher interest rates to lure in those customers, along with other fees. Regulators and bankers say they are also a type of "hot" money that is prone to disappear when a bank hits a rough patch, since these yield-seeking customers don't tend to be loyal.
Putin Calls Trump Charges Political 'Persecution'
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday waded into the debate over the criminal charges faced by Republican election candidate Donald Trump, saying the cases against the former U.S. president amount to political "persecution" and expose U.S. weakness.
"This shows the whole rottenness of the American political system, which cannot claim to teach others about democracy," Putin said in an appearance at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, an annual event aimed at showcasing the Russian government's development plans. "What's happening with Trump is a persecution of a political rival for political motives."
Biden Administration Takes Steps to Free Up $6 Billion in Iranian Funds in Prisoner-Swap Deal
WASHINGTON-The Biden administration issued a waiver for international banks to transfer $6 billion in frozen Iranian money from South Korea to Qatar without running afoul of U.S. sanctions, a possible step toward the release of five American citizens detained in Iran.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken notified lawmakers of the waiver of certain Iran sanctions, according to a letter to Congress dated Monday. The release of funds is seen as paving the way for Iran to potentially free five Americans and the U.S. to free as many Iranians.
Donald Trump Seeks Recusal of Judge Presiding Over His Federal Jan. 6 Case
WASHINGTON-Former President Donald Trump's lawyers have asked the judge assigned to his federal election-interference case to recuse herself, saying her previous negative statements about Trump have created the appearance of bias.
In a nine-page motion filed Monday, Trump lawyers John Lauro and Todd Blanche pointed to two sentencing hearings in which U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan harshly criticized the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol while sentencing convicted rioters. During those hearings, Trump's lawyers argued, Chutkan suggested that the former president should be prosecuted and imprisoned, making her statements "inherently disqualifying."
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This article is a text version of a Wall Street Journal newsletter published earlier today.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
09-12-23 0612ET
