It's The Economy Stupid: Is China growth slowing or are they just striking a pose?

 

Stocks Fall on China Growth Concern; Yen Gains, Treasuries Drop

 

Greece’s private creditors decide this week whether to sign off on the country’s debt restructuring.

 

Description	Ticker	Last	CHANGE	% Chg Today	Pct Chg 1Yr
STOCK MARKETS
Dow Jones Industrial Average	INDU Index	12962.810	-14.7600	-0.1137	6.5012
S&P 500 Index	SPX Index	1364.330	-5.3000	-0.3870	3.2638
NASDAQ Composite Index	CCMP Index	2950.480	-25.7100	-0.8639	5.9544
Russell 3000 Index	RAY Index	808.730	-3.0600	-0.3769	2.5463
Russell 2000 Index (Small)	RTY Index	803.650	1.2300	0.1533	-2.5867
S&P 400 Mid Cap Index	MID Index	973.620	-3.4300	-0.3511	0.5741
S&P 600 Small Cap Index	SML Index	447.300	1.0700	0.2398	2.5468
TREASURIES	% Yield
3 Month Treasury	0.0661		0.0000	0.0000
6 Month Treasury	0.1268		0.0100	9.0909
2 Year Treasury	0.2935	99.914	-0.0391	-0.0391
5 Year Treasury	0.8670	100.039	-0.1484	-0.1482
10 Year Treasury	2.0017	99.969	-0.2656	-0.2650
30 Year Treasury	3.1460	99.594	-0.8438	-0.8401
ENERGY
Crude Oil, Brent Index	Brent Crude	124.180	0.5300	0.4286	9.7162
Crude Oil, Louisiana Lt. Sweet	LA Light Sweet	126.170	0.7700	0.6140	5.8900
Natural Gas, Henry Hub Index	Nat Gas	2.356	-0.1280	-5.1530	-47.8914
PRECIOUS METALS
Spot Gold $/oz	GOLD	1705.520	-7.0800	-0.4134	19.1893
Spot Silver $/oz	SILVER	33.988	-0.7992	-2.2974	-4.5289
CURRENCIES
Euro	EUR Curncy	1.322	0.0022	0.1667	-5.3551
Japanese Yen	JPY Curncy	81.460	-0.3500	-0.4278	0.9327
British Pound	GBP Curncy	1.586	0.0029	0.1832	-2.0739
Swiss Franc	CHF Curncy	0.912	-0.0024	-0.2624	1.5784
Canadian Dollar	CAD Curncy	0.994	0.0047	0.4751	-2.0923
Chinese Yuan	CNY Curncy	6.310	0.0102	0.1619	3.9114
FOREIGN INDICIES
FTSE 100 INDEX	UK	5874.820	-36.3100	-0.6143	-1.9293
CAC 40 INDEX	FRANCE	3487.540	-13.6300	-0.3893	-13.2498
DAX INDEX	GERMANY	6866.460	-54.9100	-0.7933	-4.3522
NIKKEI 225 INDEX	JAPAN	9698.590	-78.4400	-0.8023	-9.3052
HANG SENG INDEX	HONG KONG	21265.310	-296.9500	-1.3772	-9.1570

 

 

 

Is China growth slowing or are they just striking a pose?

 

Stocks fell for a second day after China announced the lowest economic growth target since 2004 and European services and manufacturing output was less than earlier estimated. The yen climbed, while Treasuries declined.

    

China cut the nation’s economic growth target to 7.5 percent from an 8 percent goal in place since 2005, according to Premier Wen Jiabao’s speech at the National People’s Congress today. European services and manufacturing output shrank in February more than earlier estimated, Markit Economics said, and U.S. factory orders fell for the first time in three months.

 

Corporate profits have doubled since 2009 have left the S&P 500 cheaper than at all 34 peaks since 1989.

 

Companies in the benchmark gauge of U.S. stocks trade for 14.1 times earnings after advancing 102 percent since March

2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg that excludes peaks occurring within a month of one another. Valuations are

lower than at every 52-week peak since 1989. Traders have pushed the price of contracts that pay should the S&P 500 drop 20

percent to the most since 2007 compared with ones betting on a rally of the same size.

 

The Greek government has set a 75 percent participation rate as a threshold for proceeding with the transaction, in

which investors will forgive 53.5 percent of their principal and exchange their remaining holdings for new Greek government bonds

and notes from the European Financial Stability Facility.

 

The private investors that declared their participation in Greece’s debt restructuring hold about 20 percent of the bonds

involved in a swap required for an international bailout. The 12 members of the creditors’ steering committee that said today

they would join in the exchange have debt with a face value of about 40 billion euros ($53 billion).