Benzinga Market Primer: Thursday, March 7

U.S. equity futures trade up in early Thursday trading

Top News

In other news around the markets:

• Germany factory orders down 1.9 percent vs. the 0.5 percent expected increase;


• Euro benefited from positive Spanish and French bond auctions;


• S&P 500 futures gained 0.2 percent;


• The EUR/USD was at 1.3021, a 0.35 percent decline;


• Spanish 10-year government bond yields rose to 4.917 percent;


• Italian 10-year government bond yields fell 0.54 percent to 4.64;


• Gold saw its first decline yesterday in three days to $1,579.25 an ounce, a year to date loss of 5.6 percent.

Overseas Markets

Asian shares fell 0.4 percent while the Nikkei hit a 4.5 year high. Shares had two strong days of gains after meetings of central banks, but the Nikkei was excused after drawing support from the U.S. House of Representatives that agreed to continue funding government programs until September 30.

Commodities

WTI Crude futures and Brent Crude futures were down 0.5 percent, continuing the decline over the last month to a total of 5.95 percent drop. Copper futures were up 0.007 percent to 3.50. Gold was and silver futures are up on electronic trades 0.39 percent.

Currencies

The Canadian dollar traded down 0.14 percent, the British pound was down 0.10 percent, the Japanese yen was up 0.20 percent and the Australian dollar was down 0.39 percent..

Earnings

Notable companies reporting earnings Thursday include:

• Pandora P is expected to report quarterly EPS of -$0.5 vs. -$0.3 a year ago.<l/i>
  
• Fly Leasing FLY is expected to report quarterly EPS of $0.78 vs. $0.80 a year ago.


• Cedar Realty Trust CDR is expected to report quarterly EPS of $0.09 vs. $0.12 a year ago.


• Workday WDAY is expected to report quarterly EPS of -$0.21.

Economics

On the economic calendar Thursday, the international trade report that will give insight to the U.S. on the global economy. The Bank of England also render a decision from its committee on monetary policy.

Good luck and good trading.