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business newsPre-Market Primer: Downgrades in Europe
By
Vincent Trivett
Feb 14, 2012 9:05 am
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Eurozone finance ministers will be meeting in Brussels tomorrow to decide whether to give their blessing to Greece's austerity package. If they do, Greece will take a step away from the precipice of default. This isn't certain, however. There is a chance that the Eurogroup will reject Greece's austerity package. Last week, the group was looking for 325 million euros in additional budget cuts. German FinMin Wolfgang Schaeuble isn't ruling out a Greek default.
Eurozone industrial production fell by 1.1% from November to December. Q4 industrial production fell 2% from the previous quarter, suggesting that European GDP might have contracted in the fourth quarter of 2011.
European markets don't seem to be fazed by all this. The euro is basically unchanged against the dollar. Germany's ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment actually hit a 10-month high of 5.4. European indices are largely unchanged from yesterday. US stock futures pointed to an extension of yesterday's gains, but fell later on tepid January retail sales data.
- Dow (^DJI) futures are down 6.00 points to 12,829.00.
- S&P 500 (SPY) futures fell 1.50 points to 1,347.60.
- Nasdaq (^IXIC) futures are unchanged at 2,567.75.
WTI crude oil futures are up 0.45% to $101.360/barrel and Brent crude futures are down 0.26% to $117.620/barrel. Gold futures are down 0.48% to $1,716.60/ounce.
The Japanese yen fell to 78.1430 to one dollar after the Bank of Japan unexpectedly set its inflation target at 1% and added 10 trillion yen to its asset-purchase program.
Shares of Michael Kors (KORS) surged over 18% in the pre-market, after the Hong Kong-based fashion house posted fiscal Q3 earnings of $0.20 per share, more than double analyst expectations.
Google (GOOG) won approval for it's $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility (MMI) from US and European Regulators. Google's stock is up slightly in the pre-market.
Twitter: @vincent_trivett
No positions in stocks mentioned.
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