10 Things You Need To Know Before the Opening Bell

10 Things Before Opening Bell

May 21, 2014

Good morning! Here's what you need to know.

EIA Cuts California Shale Estimate. The L.A. Times reports the EIA is cutting the estimate of recoverable shale oil in the state's Monterey play by 96%. Now it says it has about as much as Bolivia.

Yellen And Fed Minutes. The latest Fed minutes will be released at 2 p.m. this afternoon. Meanwhile Janet Yellen will speak at NYU's graduation. The KC Fed's Esther George and Minneapolis' Narayana Kocherlakota also speak today.

China And Russia Pipeline. Russia's Gazprom and China's China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) have signed a historic 30-year contract to supply natural gas to China, according to Russia Today and confirmed by Bloomberg.

UK Retail Sales Explode. Retail sales jumped 1.3% in April from March, and 6.9% YOY. It's the highest year-on-year growth in the quantity bought since May 2004 and continued a pattern of year-on-year growth since early 2013.

Tiffany's Beats. Tiffany & Co. said same-store sales were up 11%, beat on top and bottom lines, and boosted its fiscal 2014 outlook.

Lowe's Winter. The home improvement giant said same-store sales climbed 0.9%, missing expectations for 5%, but the retailer topped earnings estimates and it raised forecasts.

Mortgages. MBA Mortgage Apps climbed 0.9% week-on-week, while the mortgage purchase index, which includes all mortgage applications for purchases of single-family homes fell 2.8%, compared with a decline of just 0.1% a week ago.

Top JPM China Banker Arrested. JP Morgan's former head of China investment banking has been arrested by Hong Kong’s anticorruption agency, the New York Times said.

BOJ Does Nothing. The Bank of Japan held rates the same and said the economy "has continued to recover moderately," the same words it used a month earlier, the FT noted.

Markets. U.S. futures were higher. Stocks in Europe were mixed. China's Shenzhen composite was up 1%.

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