Pre market

Asia and Europe are both very bullish this morning.


Economic Calendar

Earnings

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Crude oil rose to more than $73 a barrel in New York after the U.S. government reported supplies of oil dropped because of a decline in imports.

Crude-oil stockpiles dropped 1.5 million barrels to 352.6 million barrels last week, according to the U.S. Energy Department. Imports fell 7 percent to an average 10 million barrels a day, the lowest since the week ended April 13. Bloomberg
I think oil prices are close to peaking for the year. Lately, a lot of 'dumb' money has gone long oil.

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Retailers posted modest June sales results, with department stores showing weakness and apparel sellers posting mostly flat sales.

Among the casualties is Macy's Inc., which reported weaker-than-projected sales and cut its fiscal second-quarter earnings outlook. Five other retailers also lowered forecasts.

Conversely, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. beat its modest outlook and Cato Corp. sees earnings above expectations amid solid sales and lower-than-expected markdowns.

As they did in the prior three months, June same-store-sales comparisons will be impacted somewhat by calendar shifts that are moving holidays into different monthly reporting periods compared with 2006. WSJ
As I suspected retail sales are slowing.

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Rio Tinto has sparked a bidding battle for Alcan by tabling a $38.1 billion (£18.9 billion) offer for the Canadian aluminium producer, $10 billion more than the bid made by Alcoa.

The Anglo-Australian mining giant said that the $101 per share all-cash bid, the largest ever made in the industry, had been unanimously recommended by Alcan’s board.

The acquisition will fuel a fourfold increase in Rio’s alumininum output and see it overtake Alcoa and Russia's Rusal as the world’s biggest producer of the metal at a time aluminium prices are soaring on the back of demand from Russia and China and with Indian demand set to take off. Times online