Headline News 10.03.11

US & GLOBAL 
• Buruknya outlook dari laporan keuangan Texas Instruments menekan kinerja Nasdaq dan mendorong sub‐indeks produsen chip hingga di bawah level teknis penting
yang mulai menggoyahkan proyeksi uptrend selama 6‐bulan terakhir. Indeks PHLX semikonduktor <.SOX> turun 3% ditutup di bawah moving average 50‐hariannya
untuk pertama kalinya sejak September 2010 silam. Saham Texas Instruments <TXN.N> memimpin penurunan, setelah earningnya mengecewakan. Sahamnya turun
3,1%. Sementara itu International Business Machines Corp <IBM.N> berhasil menahan berlanjutnya pelemahan Dow Jones, dimana saham tersebut naik 2,2%.
 
• Tingginya harga minyak dunia masih merupakan momok bagi prospek kinerja saham‐saham bursa Wall Street, karena kenaikan harga minyak diprediksi akan
memberikan tekanan bagi pemulihan ekonomi AS. Indeks Dow Jones <. DJI> tuurn 1,29 poin atau 0,01% ke 12,213.09, S&P500 <. SPX> turun 1,80 poin atau 0,14% ke
1,320.02 dan Nasdaq <. IXIC> turun 14,05 poin atau 0,51% ke 2,751.72.
 
• Harga emas menguat tipis, namun gagal menembus level tertingginya dipicu oleh pelemahan harga minyak dunia yang menurunkan minat beli investor pada aset safe
haven. Harga emas saat ini terpengaruh pergerakan harga minyak dunia yang masih didominasi sentimen dari unjuk rasa yang berkembang di Timur Tengah dan Afrika
Utara. Harga spot emas <XAU=> naik 0,2% ke 1,429.60 USD per troy ounce.
 
• Harga minyak Brent London berhasil rebound diatas 116 USD per barel dipicu oleh meningkatnya pertempuran antara pendukung dan anti pemerintahan Kadafi di
Libia yang memicu kekhawatiran pasokan minyak. Sementara itu minyak mentah AS turun akibat persediaan minyak yang meningkat tajam. Harga minyak mentah
Brent untuk pengiriman April <LCOJ1> naik 2,88 USD lebih tinggi ke 115,94 USD per barel, setelah sebelumnya sempat mencapai 116,18 USD per barel. Sementara itu
harga minyak Crude AS untuk pengiriman April <CLJ1> turun 64 sen ke 104,38 USD per barel.
 
• Euro gagal re‐test level tertinggi dalam 4‐tahun terakhir yang tercetak pada sesi Rabu 09 Maret lalu, kekhawatiran pada kondisi fiskal beberapa negara di zona euro
diperkirakan akan menghambat kenaikan euro lebih lanjut. Euro terakhir diperdagangkan stagnan terhadap dollar AS ke 1,3904 <EUR=>. Dalam lelang yang diadakan
Rabu 09 Maret, biaya untuk menerbitkan obligasi dengan tenor 2‐tahun Portugis melonjak ke level tertinggi sejak 1999 silam, menaikkan kekhawatiran bahwa negara
tersebut memerlukan bailout. Jika ECB menaikkan suku bunga maka hal tersebut diperkirakan akan merusak kemampuan finansial negara‐negara seperti Portugal,
Yunani dan Irlandia untuk mendongkrak pertumbuhan ekonominya – berpotensi menekan laju euro. Presiden ECB Jean‐Claude Trichet pekan lalu mengisyaratkan
bahwa suku bunga mungkin akan dinaikkan pada sidang ECB untuk April.
 
• Dollar AS naik tipis 0,1% terhadap yen ke 82,70 yen <JPY=>. Berdasarkan laporan dari institusi keuangan terkemuka ‐ UBS, fund manager terkemuka dunia telah
meningkatkan volume pembelian dollar AS terhadap yen dalam beberapa pekan terakhir, meskipun flutuasi tajam imbal hasil obligasi AS dalam beberapa sesi terakhir
membatasi penguatan dollar terhadap yen akhir‐akhir ini. Sterling naik 0,2% ke 1,6200 <GBP‐D4>, sementara New Zealand dollar turun 0,3% ke 0,7366 <NZD=D4>
setelah bank sentralnya memangkas suku bunga sebesar 50 basis poin. Pemimpin dari 17‐negara zona euro pada pertemuan Jumat 11 Maret ini diperkirakan akan
menyetujui program penanganan krisis kawasan. Namun, kinerja euro masih mendapat dukungan dari perrbedaan suku bunga dengan negara maju lainnya, terutama
sejak meningkatnya ekspektasi kenaikan suku bunga oleh ECB, kontras dengan kebijakan moneter AS yang tampaknya akan tetap longgar dalam beberapa waktu
kedepan.

Brent crude rises on fierce battles in Libya

NEW YORK | Wed Mar 9, 2011 4:15pm EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Brent oil prices rebounded toward $116 a barrel on Wednesday as intense fighting in Libya stoked more supply worries and U.S. crude fell as inventories rose sharply, widening Brent's premium against U.S. crude.

Brent crude for April delivery settled $2.88 higher at $115.94 a barrel, having earlier hit $116.18.
U.S. April crude closed at $104.38 a barrel, down 64 cents, after hitting an early high of $105.92.
Brent crude's premium over U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude widened to $11.56, from $8.04 at the close on Tuesday. That was a gain of $3.52, or 44 percent, the biggest single-day percentage gain of Brent over U.S. crude since November 15.

Muammar Gaddafi's forces struck an oil pipeline leading to the Es Sider town and dropped bombs on storage tanks in the Ras Lanuf oil terminal area in the eastern section of Libya that is rebel-controlled.
Libyan state television blamed the explosions on "al Qaeda-backed" armed elements.
Rebels said they had retaken the main square of the western city of Zawiyah after pro-Gaddafi forces took control of it earlier in the day. The fighting has led to the closure of one of Libya's biggest refineries there.

HIGHER U.S. STOCKPILES

U.S. crude prices weakened after data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed crude inventories rose 2.51 million barrels last week, dwarfing the forecast for an increase of just 400,000 barrels in a Reuters poll.
More telling for U.S. crude, crude stocks at the key delivery hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, soared 1.69 million barrels to a record 40.26 million barrels.

But losses for U.S. crude were limited as the weekly data showed drawdowns for gasoline and distillate inventories were bigger than expected, reflecting improving demand.
U.S. gasoline for April jumped more than 8 cents to close at $3.0272 a gallon, while April heating oil gained nearly 6 cents to $3.0707 a gallon, both near 2-1/2-year highs.

PROLONGED STRUGGLE?

Perception of prolonged trouble in Libya was driving the rally in oil prices, said Christopher Bellew, an oil trader at Bache Commodities in London.
"As the outlook for Western intervention looks less likely -- which would bring things to a quick conclusion -- then we are looking at a prolonged struggle," he said.
 Confirming previous non-Libyan estimates, Shokri Ghanem, chairman of Libya's National Oil Corp, told a news conference in Tripoli that production has been cut to about half a million barrels per day, from 1.6 million bpd, as many foreign and local workers have left oil fields.
Libyan oil trade has been paralyzed as banks decline to clear payments in dollars due to U.S. sanctions, though Austrian energy group OMV said it had been buying small amounts of Libyan crude oil and would continue to do so.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the alliance was not looking to intervene in Libya, but its military was ready to respond at short notice.
Oil prices fell on Tuesday after Kuwait's oil minister said OPEC was considering raising output due to the Libyan outage.
But an OPEC delegate said on Wednesday that the group saw no need for an emergency meeting to discuss raising output.

Leading OPEC producer Saudi Arabia is already pumping more oil -- up to 9 million barrels per day -- to keep supplies available if needed.
Saudi Shi'ites staged another small protest in the kingdom's Eastern province, defying a ban on demonstrations, but Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said dialogue, not protest, was the best way to bring about change.
OPEC member Algeria's oil minister said on Wednesday he was confident that potential domestic unrest in Algeria or Saudi Arabia would not disrupt oil exports.