10 Things You Need To Know Before The Opening Bell
Oct 30, 2013, 16:16 IST
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- Asian markets were all higher, with Japan's Nikkei up 1.23%; China's SSE up 1.48%; and Korea's KOSPI up 0.38%. European markets were heading north too, and U.S. futures looked to be headed up as well.
- The economic data deluge continues today at 8:15 a.m. ET with the ADP employment report. Economists estimate ADP to report a 150,000 increase in payrolls, down from last month's 166,000.
- At 8:30 a.m., we'll get Consumer Price Index. Economists expect that CPI increased 0.2% (and also 0.2% excluding food and energy prices). "Gasoline prices at the pump were little changed and should not be a swing factor," Credit Suisse's Alex Lebwohl wrote to clients. "Core should round up to 0.2%, as in recent months, supported by rents, firmer used vehicle prices, and a turnaround in hotel rates and airfares after a recent soft run."
- Today concludes the two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, and the FOMC will update us on its monetary policy at 2 p.m. Economists do not expect the central bank to taper its asset purchasing program or change interest rates. "The market should focus on how the Fed changes the official statement because it could send important signals about future policy actions (or lack thereof)," according to Morgan Stanley interest rate strategists Matthew Hornbach and Guneet Dhingra.
- General Motors will report earnings this morning. Analysts are expecting the auto company's EPS to come in at $0.93.
- Spain has been slogging through a recession for some time now, but now it looks like the country may have turned the corner. Spain's GDP grew 0.1% in the third quarter after eight consecutive quarters of retraction.
- In other euro-zone news, economic confidence in the area improved to 97.8 in October, beating expectations of 97.2 after September's 96.9 print.
- The monster legal settlement reached by JP Morgan and the U.S. government is "at risk of collapsing because of disagreements related to a criminal probe of the bank and its effort to get penalties reimbursed by a government-controlled fund," the Wall Street Journal's Devlin Barrett and Dan Fitzpatrick report.
- Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista's oil company OGX edged closer toward bankruptcy, the FT's Samantha Pearson reports. The company has until tomorrow to make a debt payment, or else it will be considered officially in default. After failing to negotiate with creditors holding $3.6 billion in bonds, OGX says it has enough cash to continue operating through December, according to the FT.
- Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sibelius will testify before Congress today on the glitchy rollout of Healthcare.gov. She is expected to "acknowledge problems" with the the site rollout and "pledge quick fixes to the bug-plagued online health insurance marketplace," NBC's Daniel Arkin reports.