31 January 2012 at 14:25 GMT
Germany adds 34,000 jobs in January
Stoxx 50 is up 1.0 percent in today's session fueled by better than expected jobs data in Germany where 34,000 jobs were added in January pushing the unemployment rate down to 6.7 percent from 6.8 percent in December. The positive sentiment is sending US futures up around 0.4 percent.
Health care companies report excellent earnings
In US pre-market, several health care companies such as Eli Lilly, Pfizer and Biogen are all reporting better than estimated earnings per share. The biggest surprise is Eli Lilly as the Cymbalta drug is offsetting a sales decline in Zyprexa.
In a shameless self-promotion we want to highlight our global equities sector Z-score valuation model that has for the last couple of months pointed to health care as one of the cheapest sectors right now.
Other earnings out ahead of the US open, are Exxon Mobil reporting Q4 EPS in line with estimates and UPS beating expectations while at the same time topping estimates for 2012 on rising shipping demand. Contrary to this US Steel had a bad Q4 seeing EPS negatively surprise by 33 percent as the company swings to loss.
Watch Amazon later today after the market close.
On today's macro events we recommend our
macro update from earlier today.