Riot police react to petrol bombs thrown by masked youths in Syntagma Square during a 24-hour general strike against planned pension reforms in Athens, Greece.
Friday is jobs day. The US economy is expected to have created 190,000 jobs during the month of January as the unemployment rate held at 5.0%, according to Bloomberg. In addition, average hourly earnings are anticipated to have climbed 0.3% month-over-month and 2.2% year-over-year while the average workweek held at 34.5 hours. The data will cross the wires at 8:30 a.m. ET.
The Chinese New Year is coming. The Chinese New Year begins on Monday, February 8. The week-long holiday will keep markets across Asia shuttered for at least a couple of days. Mainland China and Taiwan will see their markets closed for the entire week as they bring in the Year of the Monkey. China's Shanghai Composite (-0.6%) fell on its last trading day during the Year of the Goat.
President Barack Obama wants a $10 per barrel tax on oil. Obama is set to release his new budget plan next week, and it will contain a $10 per barrel tax on each barrel of oil sold to promote investment in clean transportation projects. The proposal is expected to be met with strong objections in the Republican-controlled US Congress.
Support for a Brexit is gaining momentum. The latest YouGov poll showed 45% are in favor of a Brexit while only 36% are opposed. The case for leaving the EU has gained support following UK Prime Minister David Cameron releasing his draft EU deal earlier this week. Specifically, people are pointing to the sections related to immigration for the shift in support.
Goldman Sachs warns the British pound could plunge on a Brexit. The Telegraph reports, Goldman Sachs thinks the British pound could lose 20% of its value if the UK votes to leave the European Union. The investment bank pointed to the UK's large current account deficit as a "source of vulnerability." According to Goldman a drop to 1.15 or 1.20 cannot be ruled out. Currently the British pound is down 0.4% at 1.4527.
LinkedIn is getting crushed after giving brutal guidance. The professional networking site said it expects first-quarter adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.55, which is well shy of the $0.75 expected by the Bloomberg consensus. Revenue guidance was also light, coming out at between $3.6 billion and $3.65 billion, compared Wall Street expectations of $3.9 billion. As for the fourth quarter, LinkedIn announced adjusted earnings of $0.94 per share, easily beating the $0.78 that was anticipated. Revenue surged 34% to $861.9 million, which exceeded the expected $857.4 million. The stock is down 30% in pre-market trade.
News Corp disappointed. The media giant earned an adjusted $0.20 per share, missing the Bloomberg consensus by a penny. Revenue fell 4.3% to $2.16 billion, but that was good enough to beat the $2.13 billion Wall Street was expecting. Reuters says News Corp's core media business, including Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal, contributed to the slump.
France's biggest bank saw a huge drop in profit. BNP Paribas' fourth quarter profit plunged 52%. Income at the French investment bank €665 million from more than €1 billion a year earlier. The disappointing results come as the bank was forced to write-down the value of its assets at its BNL, its Italian unit. BNP has announced it's restructuring its investment bank division and increasing focus on wealth management.
Stock markets around the world are mixed. Japan's Nikkei (-1.3%) lagged in Asia as Hong Kong's Hang Seng (+0.6%) outperformed. In Europe, Spain's IBEX (+0.8%) leads and Germany's DAX (-0.2%) underperforms. S&P 500 futures are higher by 1.75 points at 1909.50.
US economic data is heavy. In addition to the jobs report and everything that comes along with it, the trade balance will also be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Consumer credit ends this week's data with its 3 p.m. ET release. The US 10-year yield is up 1 basis point at 1.85%.