Day Traders Diary

02/01/2012

WRAPX S&P futures vs fair value: +9.00. Nasdaq futures vs fair value: +11.00.
Stocks are expected to start today's trade with solid gains. The upward bias comes in response to renewed buying interest in Europe after struggling Portugal successfully auctioned off some short-term debt and continental constituents like Germany, France, and the United Kingdom served up some satisfactory manufacturing numbers. There are still no reports of progress in Greece's efforts to strike a compromise with creditors, however. China posted a couple of manufacturing readings that contradicted one another in regard to industry expansion and contraction... The U.S. will post its own manufacturing data with the release of the ISM report at 10:00 AM ET. Market participants were already dealt an ADP Employment Change that showed a solid increase in private payrolls during January, although the increase wasn't quite as strong as what had been widely expected... On the earnings front, most reports continue to exceed what has been expected, but Amazon.com (AMZN 173.43, -21.01) posted a disappointing revenue figure and forecast that have overshadowed its better-than-expected bottom line. Note: ticker quote reflects premarket price... Outside of equities, Treasuries have ticked down just enough to take the yield on the benchmark 10-year Note a couple of basis points back above 1.80%. Meanwhile, the dollar is down 0.5% against a collection of competing currencies, primarily the euro. The dollar's decline has made it easier for precious metals to push higher, but energy prices are mixed with natural gas prices extending their prior session slide and oil prices up ahead of a weekly oil inventory report at 10:30 AM ET.

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