10 Things You Need To Know Before The Opening Bell

10 Things Before Opening Bell

August 07, 2014

REUTERS/Kenneth Armstrong
The hitchBOT is seen posed next to Highway 17 north of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, and a portion of the Trans-Canada Highway August 5, 2014. The hitch-hiking robot is now at the halfway point in its journey across Canada. Picture taken August 5, 2014.

1. Russia Bans Food Imports From The West. Specifically from the U.S., E.U., Canada and Australia. There may be more measures coming: Russia confirmed flight path restrictions and sanctions targeting the Western industrial sector were also on the table the FT reports. The retaliatory measures against Western sanctions come at a bad time for Europe, which is seeing flagging growth across the board...

2. German Industrial Production Retreats. The latest reading came in at -0.5%, well short of expectations for a gain 0f 0.3%. It's the first year-over-year decline since last July, and follows Wednesday's terrible factory orders report of -3.2%. "June's year-over-year reading confirms the German industry is decelerating from a 5% annual growth peak reached in January," said Bloomberg's Maxime Sbaihi and Niraj Shah in a piece titled "No End in Sight for the German Industrial Slowdown. "[T]he pace deceleration is worrying with the crisis in Ukraine adding further weakness," said Pantheon Macroeconomics' Claus Vistesen.

3. 'Panic-Selling' In London Real Estate. The Telegraph says homeowners have begun dumping properties over fears they are running out of time to cash in on the huge run-up in prices. As BI's Jim Edwards points out, real estate agent chain Savills recently reported that showed strong indications the London market was topping out.

London average property values: flat.
London volume of exchanges: up 9%.
Outside London average property values: up 9%.
Outside London volume of exchanges: up 20%.

4. Draghi. ECB rate decision hits at 7:45 a.m. Eastern; the press conference at 8:30 a.m.. "No changes are expected but [Draghi's] monthly press conference will be used to grill [him] on last week's poor Eurozone inflation readings, the aforementioned weak data and likely the impact of the standoff with Russia," Accendo Markets' Michael van Dulken wrote in a note.

5. Bank of America In Record Fine. The Charlotte-based megabank, which purchased subprime loan giant Countrywide in 2008, is expected to announce it has settled with federal prosecutors for a record $17 billion over mortgage fraud claims. The story was first reported Wednesday afternoon by The Wall Street Journal.

6. Fox Surges. Shares in Rupert Murdoch's holding company were up 4.3% Thursday morning before the bell after the company reported strong profits Wednesday afternoon. On the company's earnings conference call, Murdoch called the company's decision to walk away from the Time Warner deal its "resolute" decision, BI's Myles Udland said.

7. Keurig Green Mountain Falls. The K-Cup masters reported weaker-than-expected Q4 guidance after the bell Wednesday. Shares are down 1.6% before the bell Thursday.

8. Data. At 8:30 a.m we get weekly jobless claims. Consensus is for 305,000 against 302,000 prior. At 3 p.m. we get consumer credit. Consensus is for $18.3 billion, down from $19.6 billion prior.

9. Earnings. This morning we get Duke Energy, Mylan, Orbitz, Stratasys, and Wendy's. After the bell we get Lions Gate, Monster Beverage, SolarCity, and Zynga.

10. Markets. European stocks were down modestly: London's FTSE and Germany's DAX were off 0.2%. Asian stocks saw mixed gains: Japan's Nikkei closed up 0.5%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.8%. U.S futures were up about 0.1%.

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