By Tom Stoukas - Jan 9, 2012 6:41 PM GMT+0700
Jan. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Jonathan Golub, chief U.S. market strategist at UBS Securities LLC, talks about the outlook for U.S. stocks, global markets and his investment strategy. He speaks with Erik Schatzker on Bloomberg Television's "InsideTrack." (Source: Bloomberg)
U.S. stock-index futures fluctuated as the German and French leaders met in Berlin to discuss the European debt crisis and Alcoa Inc. prepared to unofficially kick off the earnings season.
Alcoa, which is due to become the first company in the Dow Jones Industrial Average to report fourth-quarter results after the close of trading today, rose 0.9 percent. Merck (MRK) & Co. declined in German trading after Jefferies Group Inc. downgraded the drugmaker.
Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPX) futures expiring in March dropped less than 0.1 percent to 1,273.2 at 11:39 a.m. in London. Dow futures slipped 1 point to 12,308. The S&P 500 climbed 1.6 percent last week as reports on manufacturing from America to China bolstered optimism about the global economy.
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said the Fed probably won’t begin a new round of bond purchases following “encouraging” data showing the U.S. economy gained 200,000 jobs in December.
“Hopefully, we will keep this momentum going in 2012,” Bullard told reporters on Jan. 7 after a speech in Chicago. “The tone of the data has been very strong” and the central bank “probably could wait and see for now” before deciding whether there is a need for more accommodation, he said.
Merkel, Sarkozy
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy meet today for the first time in 2012 as they seek to refine a plan for rescuing the euro over the next three months. The two leaders gather in Berlin to flesh out a new rulebook for fiscal discipline negotiated at a Dec. 9 summit that seeks to create a “fiscal compact” for the 17-member euro area.
Among the various moving parts in planning to resolve the crisis are Greek negotiations with bondholders, in their seventh month, to cut the country’s debt load in half. Olivier Blanchard, the International Monetary Fund’s chief economist, said in a CNBC interview that haircuts for Greece “could have to be larger.”
Alcoa (AA), the largest U.S. aluminum producer, climbed 0.9 percent to $9.24 in German trading.
S&P 500 companies earned (SPX) $24.74 a share in the fourth quarter, according to analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg as of Jan. 6. The 6 percent gain would be the smallest against a year-earlier quarter since September 2009.
Merck fell 0.8 percent to $38.18 in Germany after Jefferies downgraded its recommendation on the shares to “hold” from “buy,” citing valuations.
Inhibitex Inc. (INHX) more than doubled to $25.01 in pre-market New York trading as Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY) agreed to buy the Alpharetta, Georgia-based biopharmaceutical firm to boost its position in hepatitis C medicines.
Motorola Mobility Inc. slipped 0.6 percent to $38.23 in Germany. The phone maker that agreed to be bought by Google Inc. reported preliminary fourth-quarter sales that trailed analysts’ estimates, citing mounting competition and higher legal costs.
To contact the reporter on this story: Tom Stoukas in Athens at astoukas@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Rummer at arummer@bloomberg.net
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