08 February 2012 at 8:40 GMT
Though the negotiations about the Greek Private Sector Involvement (PSI) deal will no doubt weigh on sentiment again today, we venture away from the drama and find three other numbers to watch today - three numbers, which unlike the Greek PSI deal, are not expected to be delayed.
- Canadian Housing Starts to start the year a bit down? (13:15): The Canadian housing market has so far escaped the meltdown experienced in almost every other major developed world a few years ago and housing starts have recovered well in the second half of 2011 up 1 percent for the year and 9.3 percent in the last six months. Building permits - which lead housing starts - have struggled to keep up with the latter pointing to weaker numbers in the coming months. Indeed, this is also the consensus expectation with a decline to 194,000 in Januar from 199.900 a month earlier.
- Cisco Systems EPS to surprise? (21:05): Cisco, the IT mammoth, will release its Q1'12 earnings late in the US session with expectations of (diluted, excl. special items) earnings per share (EPS) of USD 0.434, which would imply a quarter-on-quarter increase of 10.2 percent. Sales, meanwhile, are expected to inch up by 1.8 percent. The case for Cisco is whether its turnaround is progressing as expected, and we will keep an eye out on how government spending in both Europe and the US is holding up.
- Groupon to show rapid growth? (after market): Groupon, the online local shopping deal site, will announce its first quarterly report (Q3'12) since the IPO in November 2011 with the market looking for vigorous growth in both earnings and sales. It is expected to record its first profit since 1Q'10 of USD 0.034 from -0.033 a quarter ago while sales are seen rising to 472.6 million from 430 million quarter-on-quarter and 174.4 percent from a year ago. Focus will be on the second derivative - i.e. change in growth rates - internet companies are especially in focus given the talk of the pending Facebook IPO.
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