10 Things You Need To Know Before European Markets Open
And Oil Prices Jumped. US benchmark WTI crude futures rose more than 2% to a high of $47.76 a barrel in early Asian trading. International benchmark Brent futures opened up almost 1.5 percent higher at $49.10 per barrel at 1 a.m. GMT (8 p.m. ET). Saudi Arabia is the world's largest oil producer.
China's Manufacturing PMI Is Still In Recession Territory. Almost good news out of China with the release of the HSBC Flash China Manufacturing PMI which beat expectations of 49.5 with a print of 49.8. However the index still lingers in the contraction zone below 50.
The Euro Hit 11-Year Lows After The QE Announcement. The euro is down another 03.4% percent at $1.1319 , not far from the 11-year trough of $1.1316 struck overnight. The currency fell from over $1.16 after ECB President Mario Draghi announced a larger-than expected packaged of quantitative easing.
Asian Shares Are Up. The Nikkei climbed in trading Friday, up 1.05% to the close. Hong Kong's Hang Seng is up too, currently 1.16% higher, follower by the Shanghai Composite, which is now up 0.24%.
Telefonica Is Selling o2. Telefonica is set to agree to a cash deal of £10 billion ($15 billion) to sell o2, its British mobile company, to Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing's Hutchison Whampoa, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.
Oil Companies Are Looking At Liquidation By The Summer. The carnage from low oil prices is about to get even uglier. Conway McKenzie, the largest restructuring firm in the US, says that oil drillers will begin shutting down as soon as the second quarter, followed closely by explorers, according to Bloomberg's Joe Carroll.
PMIs Are Coming. At 9 a.m. GMT (4 a.m. ET), the eurozone's purchasing managers' index is out. The key business survey indicates the health of the private sector. For January, analysts expect the index to hit 51.8, above the neutral 50 mark.
Yemen's President Quit. Yemeni President Abd-Rabbuh Mansour Hadi resigned on Thursday, after a loss of control in which Iran-assisted Houthi rebels surrounded the presidential palace, kidnapped the presidential chief of staff, and opening fire on an American diplomatic vehicle.
Cloud Storage And File Sharing Firm Box Just Priced Its IPO. Box raised its IPO price to $14 a share, making it worth about $1.67 billion, Reuters reported Thursday. That's slightly more than the initial pricing range of $11 to $13 a share Box had set in its S1 two weeks ago. At $14 a share, Box will be able to raise $175 million from its IPO.