07 February 2012 at 14:45 GMT
The calm before the storm?
European stocks are down across the board with the Stoxx 600 0.6 percent lower as investors sell out because the Greek PSI negotiations are dragging on. Tensions in the markets are rising for every day that goes by where no agreement is reached.
Germany has seen relatively good economic data in the last month with especially better than expected job and manufacturing reports. However today's industrial producition figures for December were a blow as they contracted 2.9 percent MoM. Economists had expected the figure to be unchanged. The miss is contributing to German stocks being the worst performers in Europe today.
The negative sentiment is also impacting US futures with the S&P 500 index futures down slightly (0.1 percent) before the open.
BP shines in Q4 and raises dividend 14%; Coca-Cola beats The Street in US pre-market
Notable earnings releases are still being released and today BP reported Q4 net income of USD 7.7 bn, beating estimates of 5.6 bn. driven by higher crude oil prices compared to last year. At the same time the company is raising dividends to 8 cents a share which is important to UK pension companies that own large holdings in BP shares and have missed out on fat dividends since the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. After being off to a good start BP shares are now down 0.8 percent in today's session.
In US pre-market, Coca-Cola reported Q4 operating EPS of 0.79, beating estimates of 0.77, driven by growth in its Asia business. Its shares are up 0.9 percent in pre-market.