After a back and forth battle the Hang Seng crawled up .1% today with defensive stocks outweighing
week second quarter earnings. Sands China dropped 4.9% closing at its lowest since December 20 th as
its parent corp, Las Vegas Sands Corp reported worse than expected earnings due to lower profits at
Casinos. Concerns over July revenue for the gambling sector push down SJM holdings, MGM China and
Wynn Macau 3.5, 3.4 and 3% respectively. The index’s largest gainer Li & Fung Ltd was up 3.75% on the
day.
The FTSEurofirst is beginning the day flat on mixed earnings reports. Unilever is the top gainer in Europe,
up 5.2% after not issuing profit warnings as its two main competitors have. Rolls Royce is up 4.8% as
it revealed a better than expected 7% rise in first half profit due to the airlines need to renew fleets
with more fuel efficient planes. Royal Dutch Shell and BP lost 3.6 and 1% respectively on lagging second
quarter earnings.
Italy’s market is up 3.7% and the Euro jumped 1% to 1.2274 as Mario Draghi promised to “do whatever
it takes to preserve the Euro.”
Nokia tossed a software project code named Meltemi, which was to compete with Google’s Android,
due to costs savings efforts.
Commodities are beginning with modest gains from crude and natural gas, gold is up .67% and silver
bucking the trend down .2%.
Contributer Chris Rygh is currently pursuing his MBA in Wisconsin and has a passion for the Market.
Comments can be directed to ryghcw19@uww.edu