10 Things You Need To Know Before The Opening Bell

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January 20, 2015

Good morning! It's a shortened week of trading in the US, so ahead of Tuesday's opening bell, here's what you need to know.

China's Official GDP Growth For 2014 Dropped To The Lowest Since 1990. The world's second-largest economy grew 7.4 percent in the whole of 2014, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday, undershooting the government's 7.5 percent target and marking the weakest expansion in 24 years, further clouding the picture for global demand.

The IMF Slashed Its Global Outlook. Global growth is projected at 3.5% for 2015 and 3.7% for 2016, the IMF said in its latest World Economic Outlook report, lowering its forecast by 0.3 percentage points for both years.

It Looks Like Falling Oil Prices Won't Stop The Fed From Hiking. According to the Wall Street Journal's Jon Hilsenrath and Brian Blackstone, Fed officials are still broadly committed to a rate hike later this year, and are confident in the state of the American economy, even as oil prices drive headline inflation far below the central bank's target.

Futures Are Higher. Stock futures in the US are higher ahead of Tuesday's open, with Dow futures up 74 points, S&P 500 futures up 10 points, and Nasdaq futures up about 26 points. The pre-market gains on Tuesday comes after Friday marked the only day last week that saw the market finish in positive territory as stocks posed their fourth straight weekly loss.

Here Comes European QE. On Thursday, the European Central Bank is widely expected to announce a quantitative easing program. Many in the market expect the program to be €500 billion in size, but Business Insider's Mike Bird looked at analysis from analysts at Deutsche Bank, who find that the ECB's program could be a bit larger than this.

Greece's Radical Anti-Austerity Party Syriza Is Holding A Solid Lead Ahead Of Elections. Greek leftist opposition party Syriza has widened its opinion poll lead to 4.6 points, a survey showed on Monday, with less than a week of campaigning left before a snap poll due on Jan. 25. Syriza would garner 33.1% of the vote whereas Prime Minister Antonis Samaras' ruling conservatives would receive 28.5%.

EU Foreign Ministers Are In No Rush To "Normalize" Relations With Russia. European Union foreign ministers said on Monday there were no grounds to lift economic sanctions against Russia despite conciliatory proposals from the EU's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, as violence intensified in Ukraine.

Brazil Hiked Its Financial Transaction And Petrol Taxes. South America's largest economy raised its financial transaction tax from 1.5% to 3%, and raised petrol taxes by 0.22 reals per litre. According to the Financial Times, that equates to an 8.5% hike in petrol prices in Sao Paulo. The government is trying to address a large budget deficit.

Samsung Is Considering A Stock Split. Robert Yi, Samsung's head of investor relations, told reports at an event in Seoul that the company has been considering a stock split for some time but added that Samsung needs to consider a variety of factors. The split would multiply the number of Samsung shares on the market.

BlackRock Says The Australian Dollar Could Fall Another 15%. The end of the commodity boom is hitting resource-rich Australia hard, and investment management giant BlackRock believes the Australian dollar has further to fall, down another 15% to about $0.70, according to Bloomberg.