(Bloomberg)--Treasuries gained while Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures fell, signaling the gauge will drop from a record. Natural gas jumped and Australia’s dollar fell.
The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined four basis points to 2.86% at 8:45 a.m. in New York. S&P 500 futures lost 0.2 percent and the Stoxx Europe 600 Index slipped 0.1 percent. Spain sold three-year notes at a record-low yield of 1.595%. Australia’s dollar sank after employment unexpectedly fell and the Turkish lira dropped to a record. U.S. natural gas jumped 3.2%.
Reports today showed U.S. initial jobless claims fell last week and the cost of living climbed in December by the most in six months. Citigroup Inc. reported fourth-quarter earnings that fell short of estimates. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke speaks today.
Three shares declined for every two that advanced in the Stoxx 600, with trading volumes 29 percent higher than the average of the past 30 days, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The gauge closed at its highest level since January 2008 yesterday.
Aberdeen Asset Management Plc lost 1.4% after Scotland’s largest money manager reported 4.4 billion pounds ($7.2 billion) of net outflows in the fourth quarter as clients withdrew funds from emerging markets. Cie. Financiere Richemont SA dropped 2% after posting third-quarter sales growth that missed projections.
Rio Gains
A gauge of basic-resources companies advanced the most among 19 industry groups today. Rio Tinto Group, the world’s second-largest mining company, rose 4.1% after exceeding its 2013 cost-cutting targets. Polymetal International Plc gained 6.4% and Fresnillo Plc rose 4.5% after brokerages raised their stock ratings on the companies.
United Utilities Group Plc climbed 3.2 percent after Morgan Stanley raised its recommendation on the U.K. water company.
Citigroup lost 2.8% to $53.46. The third-biggest U.S. bank reported fourth-quarter profit that missed Wall Street estimates as bond trading slumped.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the Wall Street bank with the highest return on equity, gained 1% after reporting fourth-quarter earnings per share of $4.60, compared with an estimate of $4.18.
Best Buy Co. tumbled 30% after the company said U.S. same-store sales fell during the holiday-shopping season.
The U.S. dollar strengthened 1.5% to 87.85 cents per Aussie dollar, after earlier touching 87.77, the strongest level since August 2010. The Aussie dropped 1.1% to NZ$1.0577, and reached NZ$1.0567, the lowest since December 2005.
Flooding Markets
Turkey’s lira dropped as much as 1% to 2.2124 per dollar, before trading 0.5% lower. South Africa’s rand was little changed, after declining as much as 0.7% to 10.9610, the lowest in more than five years.
Developing nations are flooding markets with a record amount of bonds before Fed cuts in monetary stimulus spur funding costs. International sales are up 13 percent to $51.5 billion so far in January, the busiest start to a year since Bloomberg began tracking the data in 1999.
The yield on 10-year German bunds dropped four basis points to 1.78% and the rate on U.K. gilts slid four basis points to 2.82%.
The Fed in its Beige Book business survey released yesterday said that growth in December was buoyed by gains in holiday spending by consumers, an improving labor market and strength in manufacturing. Nine of 12 Fed districts grew at a moderate pace, up from seven in the previous report, released on Dec. 4. Two districts said growth was modest, down from four.
Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart, who doesn’t vote on monetary policy this year, said yesterday he expects inflation that’s been “too low” will accelerate toward the Fed’s 2 percent target.
Gas Stockpiles
U.S. natural gas rallied before a U.S. government report that is expected to show stockpiles shrank 300 billion cubic feet in the week ended Jan. 10, according to the median estimate of 21 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. That would exceed the record withdrawal of 285 billion for the seven days through Dec. 13. The Energy Information Administration report is due at 10:30 a.m. in Washington.
