What you need to know before the US open
A modest open is expected in the US today, as stock futures fell on investor caution.
Another weather victim: housing starts for January came in lower than expected at 880,000 from 1.1m in December (revised up from 999,000). Analysts were expecting a figure of 950,000.
And it looks like it extended another icy finger into mortgage applications too. Last week, the volume of applications fell for the second week in a row, by 4.1 per cent, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s index.
But the worse one-month drop ever in homebuilder confidence yesterday left investors nervous, as data could suggest a greater weakness in the economy than just severe weather.
In focus today are the minutes from the end-of-January Fed meeting which resulted in the second bout of tapering. They may give an inkling as to what the Free Open Market Committee would need to see to prompt it to further trim its stimulus programme in March. By then, there’ll be two extra job reports to chew over.
European stocks have edged lower today, pulled down by Tenaris, the Italian steel pipe specialist, after a US tariff ruling decided against charges on Korean imports of oil and gas piping.
Corporate news
Private equity firm Carlyle Group reported higher-than-expected fourth quarter earnings – up an astonishing 216 per cent. Profits from asset sales and fund values leapt, it said.
Telsa shares remain in focus after they hit an all-time high of $206 in trading yesterday.
While Tenaris sank lower, positive updates from Carlsberg and Lafarge helped negate market losses.
And French bank Credit Agricole said it’d pay a dividend for 2013 (the first one since 2010) on the back of better-than-expected results, and a return to profit.
In the UK
Sports Direct posted an 11.2 per cent jump in sales to £655m in the 13 weeks to 26 January, with quarterly profit up 14.6 per cent at £280.7m. Shares climbed over five per cent on the news.
Pets at Home became the latest firm to announce it’s going to market and BAE shares took off after it negotiated a new price for its Typhoon jet deal with Saudi Arabia.
In Europe
Production in the construction industry increased by 0.9 per cent in the euro area in December, and was up 1.0 per cent in the EU28, Eurostat data showed this morning.
Data in focus
7.00pm: US FOMC minutes