Wall Street expected slightly higher

The index futures are predicting a slightly higher opening of U.S. markets. Shortly before the opening of Wall Street, futures on indices Standard & Poor's 500 and Nasdaq 100 advancing 0.34% and 0.32% respectively at 1166.70 points and 1951.50 points.

The U.S. market ended almost in equilibrium Thursday. The indices were pulled down at the very end of the meeting by the rising dollar and the ever present strife between the EU on Greece. A last-minute agreement was reached between France and Germany on this thorny issue. But investors are still cautious. Discussions are set to continue Friday between the heads of European states in Brussels.

On the foreign exchange market, the Franco-German does indeed clearly not reassured.The stern warning from the ECB president, Jean-Claude Trichet, the idea of intervention by the International Monetary Fund has weighed heavily on the single currency. The euro bought 1.3382 dollars in early trade Friday, after falling to 1.3268 dollar a day, a low not seen since May 7, 2009.

In the U.S., investors will pay attention to the final figure of U.S. economic growth for the fourth quarter of 2009. The first two estimates showed a growth of U.S. GDP by 5.7% and 5.9% of payday loan lenders . Finally, economic growth was revised slightly downwards to 5.6% annual rate.They also monitor the index of consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan.

On the side of values, Oracle said Thursday after Wall Street closed with a 13% increase in sales of new software under its third fiscal quarter due to a rebound in corporate investments. Also in the area of technology stocks, Qualcomm, the maker of chips for mobile phones, has revised upward its sales for the second quarter.

The values related to energy and raw materials, should still be under pressure, hit by a strong dollar. The day before, Exxon Mobil (-0.3%) and Chevron (-0.2%) retreated, as the DuPont chemist (-2.4%).These companies mainly produce and bill dollar suffer doubly from the rising greenback against other currencies.

Ambac is in trouble again. Authorities in Wisconsin have reported taking control of about 64 billion dollars of impaired assets of U.S. credit enhancer, because a group's financial situation became uncertain

The marketing director of Ford said the automaker U.S. should increase its market share in the United States in March.

March 28th, 2010 in economics, finance, international, people, world | tags: , , , ,