每日市场点评 --- May 8, 2008

The market had a modest rebound following yesterday’s sharp drop. However, the volume was quite light. Most economic news for the day was on the positive side. The weekly jobless claims came at 365K vs. 375K consensus. The continuing claims were 3.02 million for the week ending April 26th compared to 3.03 million in the previous week. In addition, most chain retailers reported better than expected monthly same store sales for April. Unlike yesterday, another record high oil price didn’t deter investors from doing some bottom fishing in today’s trading.

Commodities resumed their leadership in the market. The CRB commodity rose 0.5% and closed at 422.14, a new high. Financials, on the other hand, were the main underperformers ahead of AIG’s earnings results after the bell. AIG just reported worse-than-expected results for the first quarter, which will add more pressure to the financial sector in tomorrow’s trading. The US dollar was mixed against most major currencies. Overnight, both ECB and BOE kept their interest rates steady, in line with market expectation. It is worth noting that the US dollar has advanced more than 4% against the euro since the lows touched on April 22nd. Treasuries rallied across the board after dropping persistently in the past few weeks. In the latest Fed TSLF auction, the cover ratio came at a mere 0.58, indicating the demand for treasuries has waned quite noticeably. As we stated before, the worst of the recent financial crisis may be over but the road to recovery will be a bumpy one.