US pre-open: Investors pull back on negative reports from Greece
Fri 10 Feb 2012
The main US equity benchmarks are now being called to open lower by just over 1%.
That on the back of the negative news-flow coming out of Greece.
The most negative news report probably has to do with the remarks being attributed to the German Finance Minister, to the effect that based on Greece´s current proposals the country will not meet the debt sustainability targets which multilateral institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund, are aiming for.
No help either are reports in Bloomberg that George Karatzaferis, the leader of one of the three parties (Laos) supporting interim Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, said he wouldn't support austerity measures worked out for a rescue.
Meantime, the corporate news-flow appears rather light today. Significantly perhaps, game maker Activision Blizzard is rising 1% in pre-open trades despite issuing a lower than expected earnings per share forecast for this quarter.
LabCorp. and Carefusion have both approved $500m share buy-back programs.
MACROECONOMY
The trade deficit rose by 3.7% in December, reaching $48.8bn (Consensus: $48.2bn), following a negative reading of $47.1bn the month before.
The University of Michigan will publish the results of its January consumer confidence survey at 14:55pm.
The President of the Federal Reserve, Ben S.Bernnake, is scheduled to speak on the housing market at 5:30pm.
OTHER MARKETS
Front month West Texas crude futures are now falling by 2.01% to the $99.82/barrel mark in NYMEX trading.
10 year US Treasuries are now moving up by 19/32 dollars, with yields at 1.97%.
AB