Friday the 13th (a better day than most)
The chase by Frances Horodelski:

Howard Silverblatt at S&P Capital IQ notes the following about Friday the 13th: 56.16% of the time, this day is positive (average gain 0.6654%), better than all days which are up on average 52.15% of the time (although the average gain is 0.7483%). Drilling down to the more specific, according to Mr. Silverblatt, the market has risen 83% of the time since 1928 when the calendar shows Friday, June 13.

A couple of items stood out in my reading last night. CPR announced a purchase of 457,000 common shares for cancellation directly from a third party at market prices.

At a HPQ’s annual customer conference, Meg Whitman is reported to have announced an entirely new type of computer that will use a new form of memory called “memsistors” and it won’t use MSFT’s operating system. Apparently she announced these changes, thanked MSFT for co-sponsoring the meeting and sat down to a public video conference with Nadella. Finally, according to a study reported by the BBC and prepared by Lloyd and the Centre for Economics and Business Research, based on club earnings and endorsement income, these are the most valuable teams in the World Cup, ranked in order, valued in pounds: Germany (641.2m), Spain (590.1m), England (550.1m), Brazil and (448.3m) and France (394.8m). The least valuable is Costa Rica (18.3m).

CENTRAL BANK FOCUS

The Bank of Japan maintained its pace of expansion for its monetary base of 60 to 70 trillion yen as expected, but also raised its outlook for overseas economies. The bigger focus are comments from the Bank of England’s governor, Mark Carney, that an increase in interest rates could happen “sooner than markets currently expect.” The official bank rate has been at 0.5% since March 2009. This comes as the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the UK gives the BOE new powers over mortgages allowing them to cap the size of mortgages as a proportion of income or property value. The all-house price index in the UK recently rose at an 11.1% annualized rate, a pace last seen in 2007. Eyes will be focused on Janet Yellen next week after the two-day FOMC meeting and while nothing is expected to change, we will get the “dots” and get a further sense of the consensus view as to when rates will rise. There will be three new voters next week – Brainerd, Powell and Fischer.

IN THE NEWS TODAY

The deadline for Enbridge’s Gateway’s pipeline approval is June 17, so be prepared for it to come any moment; Intel raised its Q2 outlook last night (that’s refreshing); Amaya Gaming entering the big leagues with a $4.9 billion purchase of Oldford Group, the owner of PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker; Priceline paying $103/share cash for OpenTable (versus last night’s close of $70.43); oh, and, the Liberals will be forming a majority government in Ontario.

Markets are lower in Europe and on the U.S. futures as oil spikes up to $107. The Iraqi situation is deteriorating quickly and is the “unknown” that is spiking volatility higher too. MKM Partners derivatives strategist yells “Wake-up” in his morning commentary as he expects this volatility event to intensify. Finally, as energy stocks spike higher, some say this is classic end-of-cycle performance, despite the reasons for it. With big names like Exxon and Suncor moving higher, they may mask the deterioration underneath. We’ll see, but it is time to do lots of homework this weekend. Before that we have some economic data in the U.S. (PPI and the first look at consumer sentiment for June) and manufacturing in Canada. China’s data overnight underscores a stable economic backdrop in that country. With all the major moving averages converging ($1285-1296) on gold bullion, it is the other commodity to watch.

Enjoy and have a good weekend.

Every morning Business Day Host Frances Horodelski writes a "chasenote" to BNN's editorial staff listing the stories and events that willbe in thespotlight that day.Click here to have it delivered to your inbox before the trading day begins.