SF: U.S. Stocks Fluctuate, Dollar Falls Before Fed; Corn Surges
July 11 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks were little changed and the dollar weakened before a Federal Reserve report that will detail last month’s decision to extend stimulus efforts. European shares fell, while corn and oil led commodities higher.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index swung between gains and losses near the 1,341 level at 9:31 a.m. in New York. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index slipped 0.2 percent, after gaining 0.3 percent. The Dollar Index declined 0.1 percent. Spain’s bonds gained for a second day. The S&P GSCI gauge of 24 raw materials advanced 1 percent, with oil rising 1.5 percent in New York. Corn surged 2.5 percent as the government reduced its output and inventory estimates.
The Fed will release minutes of its June meeting when it extended the maturities of assets on its balance sheet and said it stood ready to take further action. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said today the government will take more measures amounting to 65 billion euros ($79.9 billion) to shore up the budget, while Germany’s top court said a decision to suspend legislation for the euro bloc’s bailout fund and fiscal treaty may take months rather than weeks.
“The Fed minutes are the most significant event today,” Stephen Wood, the New York-based chief market strategist for North America for Russell Investments, said in a phone interview. His firm oversees $140.8 billion. “The minutes are probably are going to show a significant soft patch in the economy and likely communicate that the Fed is ready, willing and able to provide further accommodation should the data warrant it.”
Slump Halted
The four-day drop in the S&P 500 was the longest slump in two months. Last’s month Fed meeting came before a report July 6 that showed U.S. employers added fewer workers than forecast in June and growth in private payrolls was the weakest in 10 months.
A Commerce Department report today will probably show wholesale inventories rose in May at a slower pace than the prior month as businesses kept stockpiles lean, based on the median of 29 estimates in Bloomberg survey of economists. Another report indicated the trade deficit narrowed in May as imports decreased.
The dollar weakened against 15 of 16 major peers, with the currencies of Autralia, New Zealand and Singapore climbing more than 0.3 percent to lead gains. The Fed’s minutes are due at 2 p.m. Washington time.
‘More Dollars’
“There could be some suggestion that the Fed is ready to ease as early as the August meeting,” said Ankita Dudani, a foreign-exchange strategist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc in London. “That will play negative for the dollar, purely on the back of more dollars in circulation.”
Two shares fell for every one that gained in the Stoxx 600. Burberry Group Plc tumbled 9.2 percent, the biggest drop since September, after the U.K.’s largest luxury-goods company reported sales that missed estimates. Britvic Plc plunged 14 percent, the most intraday since February, after the maker of Robinsons fruit drinks said full-year results will be at the bottom end of analysts’ estimates.
The yield on Spain’s 10-year bond fell 17 basis points to 6.64 percent, while the rate on similar-maturity Italian securities slipped seven basis points to 5.88 percent.
German Auction
The yield on 10-year German bunds decreased four basis points to 1.28 percent as the government sold 4.15 billion euros of the securities at a record-low yield of 1.31 percent.
Corn climbed 2.5 percent to $7.3575 a bushel. Farmers will harvest 12.97 billion bushels this year, down 12 percent from a June prediction of 14.79 billion, the USDA said today in a report. Analysts expected 13.534 billion, based on the average of 14 estimates in a Bloomberg survey. Inventories before the 2013 harvest may be 1.183 billion bushels, less than the 1.881 billion forecast last month, the USDA said.
Corn prices through yesterday surged 42 percent since mid- June as areas of moderate to extreme drought expanded to 53 percent of the Midwest. Crop conditions as of July 8 were the worst for that date since the drought of 1988, government data show.
Oil in New York rose 1.6 percent to $85.23 a barrel today and copper gained 0.2 percent.
The MSCI Emerging Markets Index fell 0.3 percent, retreating for a sixth day in the longest run of declines since May. Russia’s Micex Index lost 1.6 percent, and India’s Sensex slipped 0.7 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.5 percent. The Turkish lira strengthened against 15 of 16 major peers after the current-account deficit narrowed.
--With assistance from Claudia Carpenter, Emma Charlton, Chris Kay, Lucy Meakin and Andrew Rummer in London and Richard Frost in Hong Kong. Editor: Michael P. Regan
To contact the reporters on this story: Stephen Kirkland in London at skirkland@bloomberg.net; Nikolaj Gammeltoft in New York at ngammeltoft@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Lynn Thomasson at lthomasson@bloomberg.net