CAPIS Capital Institutional Services : EU Close 1/18/2018

Europe sputtered as the U.S. markets pulled back into the red. Both the Euro Stoxx 50 & 600 managed to gain about 0.2% but the major national indices were mixed. The DAX and Milan posted solid advances while IBEX and FTSE pulled back. IT gained more than 1% followed by materials and financials. Weighing were utilities and real estate which were both lower more than 0.5%.

The results we flagged this morning at Countrywide -18.6% and Experian -1.0% spilled across the entire U.K. home finance and building related sectors.

Infineon +5.6% was among the leaders in the tech sector following an upgrade and improved outlook at Mainfirst. Also, ASML +3.3% continued advance following yesterday's results.

BASF +2.8% surged to highs following an upbeat outlook that hit the wire with a little more than 30 minutes to go in the session. The company sees its FY '17 EBIT ex-items surging 32.0% y/y with sales better by 12.0%. The company attributed the gains to strong results at its chemicals unit along with improved performance for the oil/gas division.

Airbus +0.7% breathed a sigh of relief thanks to an A380 order from Emirates that could be worth up to $16b. The company had already cautioned failure to win the order would spell the doom of the A380 program.

LVMH -1.5% suffered following the announcement Men's Artistic Director Kim Jones was leaving the company.

The other names we flagged this morning last traded as follows : Carrefour +3.0%, Gerberit +6.5%, and Meyer Burger +2.2%.

Crude pulled back following the weekly EIA inventories. Earlier in the session, OPEC raised its 2018 output forecasts for non-OPEC producers by 160k barrels per day with 110k of that coming from N. America. It cited the recent increase in petroleum prices.

Central bank action saw both Turkey and S. Africa leave their benchmark rates unchanged. Across the region, the USD was weaker as investors continue to watch for another stop-gap U.S. spending measure.

On tonight's agenda: Fairly quiet on the macro front but Bloomberg will release its Chinese Economic Survey and the U.K. retail sales. Watch for reaction to TSMC's results which were released after the local close. The ADRs are currently trading better by more than 3%. Earnings due include Reliance Ind., HDFC, and Wipro.

	Event		Survey	Actual	Prior	Revised
CH	Bloomberg Jan. China Economic Survey
GE	PPI MoM	Dec	0.20%	-	0.10%	-
GE	PPI YoY	Dec	2.30%	-	2.50%	-
EC	ECB Current Account SA	Nov	-	-	30.8b	-
EC	Current Account NSA	Nov	-	-	35.9b	-
SP	Trade Balance	Nov	-	-	-2511m	-
UK	Retail Sales Ex Auto Fuel MoM	Dec	-1.00%	-	1.20%	-
UK	Retail Sales Ex Auto Fuel YoY	Dec	2.60%	-	1.50%	-
UK	Retail Sales Inc Auto Fuel MoM	Dec	-1.00%	-	1.10%	-
UK	Retail Sales Inc Auto Fuel YoY	Dec	2.60%	-	1.60%	-
IT	Current Account Balance	Nov	-	-	6551m	-
CA	Manufacturing Sales MoM	Nov	2.00%	-	-0.40%	-
CA	Int'l Securities Transactions	Nov	-	-	20.81b	-
US	U. of Mich. Sentiment	Jan P	97	-	95.9	-
US	U. of Mich. Current Conditions	Jan P	114.4	-	113.8	-
US	U. of Mich. Expectations	Jan P	85.3	-	84.3	-
US	U. of Mich. 1 Yr Inflation	Jan P	-	-	2.70%	-
US	U. of Mich. 5-10 Yr Inflation	Jan P	-	-	2.40%	-