10 February 2012 at 13:56 GMT
Greek debt negotiations are still dominating sentiment
European stocks are down, with the German DAX Index down 1.9 percent in the session. Uncertainty has increased a bit, after Eurozone finance ministers declined to approve the second bailout package. The reason is that the finance ministers are worried that Greece's politicians may not uphold their commitments to austerity after the April national election.
Despite heavy stock markets today, investors should keep in mind that pullbacks on uncertainty are normal. As the chart of the DAX Index the last year shows, German stocks are still up 13 percent in what is one of the best starts in many decades.
Source: Bloomberg
US futures down on Europe, will confidence rise?
S&P 500 Index futures are currently down 0.8 percent before the open as negative sentiment in Europe is spilling over into US markets.
In pre-market, US trade balance figures for December printed minus USD -48.8 compared to minus USD 48.5 bn. expected, corresponding to a 3.7 percent widening of the trade deficit in December.
Later, University of Michigan Confidence preliminary figures for February are expected to stay almost unchanged at 74.8 compared to 75.0 in January in a signal that US consumer confidence is stabilising.
Yesterday's much better than expected earnings release from LinkedIn will put the stock in the spotlight in today's session. Despite enormous expectations the company managed to guide sales in 2012 higher than what investors had expected. The shares were up 9.6 percent to around USD 84 per share in extended trading after the close.