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| | US Market | | The major U.S. index futures are pointing to a narrowly mixed opening on Thursday, with sentiment reflecting nervousness of traders amid mixed cues. Although retail earnings have largely been encouraging, the duo of economic reports released earlier today showed divergence. While durable goods orders came in better than expected, jobless claims for the recent reporting week unexpectedly rose, stirring up concerns about the labor market, especially ahead of Fed Chair Janet Yellen's Congressional testimony. Meanwhile, geopolitical concerns triggered by the developments in Ukraine has ignited risk aversion in European markets.
U.S. stocks closed Wednesday's session modestly higher after showing a lack of direction on the day. The major averages opened higher, as traders reacted to mixed retail earnings. After dipping ahead of the new home sales data, the averages advanced steadily until early afternoon trading. Thereafter, the averages moved roughly sideways before moving lower and retreating into negative territory in late trading. After trading mostly lower in late trading, the indexes recovered to close slightly higher.
The Dow Industrials added 18.75 points or 0.12 percent before closing up at 16,198 and the Nasdaq Composite Index ended up 4.48 points or 0.10 percent at 4,292, while the S&P 500 Index closed 0.04 points higher at 1,845.
Eighteen of the thirty Dow components closed higher, while twelve stocks ended in negative territory. Wal-Mart, DuPont and UnitedHealth were among the best performers of the session.
Housing and retail stocks advanced strongly, while Gold and Biotechnology stocks came under selling pressure.
On the economic front, The Commerce Department reported that news home sales rose 9.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 468,000 in January from the revised rate of 427,000 in the previous month. Sales of new homes were higher in the Northeast, South and West but declined in the Midwest. The median price of a new home sold in January was $260,100, up 3.4 percent year-over-year but down 2.2 percent month-over-month.
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| | US Economic Reports |  | | CADUSD | Oil | Gold | Allbanc |  |  |  |  | | Please click on the images to view our interactive charts | | | The Commerce Department reported that durable goods orders fell by 1.0 percent in January after tumbling by a revised 5.3 percent in December. Economists had expected orders to drop by about 1.6 percent compared to the 4.2 percent decrease that had been reported for the previous month.
However, excluding a notable decrease in orders for transportation equipment, durable goods orders actually rose by 1.1 percent in January compared to a 1.9 percent drop in December. The increase in orders excluding transportation came as a surprise to economists, who had expected a modest decrease of about 0.4 percent
First-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits came in above economist estimates in the week ended February 22nd, according to a report released by the Labor Department.
The report said initial jobless claims rose to 348,000, an increase of 14,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 334,000. Economists had been expecting jobless claims to edge down to 335,000 from the 336,000 originally reported for the previous week.
Yellen is scheduled to testify before the Senate Banking Committee in Washington DC at 10 am ET. Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher will participate on a panel discussing the post-crisis role of central banks in Frankfurt at 10:30 am ET.
Additionally, Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart and Kansas City Fed President Esther George are due to speak at Atlanta Fed's annual banking conference at 3:15 pm ET.
The Kansas Federal Reserve is scheduled to release the results of its regional manufacturing survey at 11 am ET. The consensus estimates call for a decline in the manufacturing index to 2 in February from 5 in January.
The Treasury will release the results of its auction of its 7-year notes at 1 pm ET.
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| | Stocks in Focus | | | | FTSE 100 | Euronext | Dax perf | CAC 40 |  |  |  |  | | Please click on the images to view our interactive charts | | | Kohl's (KSS) reported fourth quarter earnings that beat estimates and its revenues were in line. The earnings guidance for the full year was in line.
Best Buy reversed to a profit in its fourth quarter and its adjusted earnings from continuing operations beat estimates. Revenues missed estimates. The company said it expects revenue and comparable store sales growth to be slightly negative in the fourth quarter. Zale's fourth quarter results were ahead of estimates.
Autodesk reported fourth quarter results that exceeded estimates. The company's full year and first quarter revenue guidance was also positive, while its first quarter earnings guidance trailed estimates.
Baidu's fourth quarter results also exceeded estimates and its first quarter revenue guidance was positive.
TiVo reported fourth quarter results that missed estimates. TiVo forecast sequential growth in service and technology revenue for the first quarter, although the estimated growth is below Street estimates. The company also announced a $100 millionincrease to its stock repurchase authorization.
J.C. Penney reported an adjusted loss for its fourth quarter that was narrower than analysts' estimate. However, revenues missed estimates.
Transocean reported fourth quarter earnings that came in line, while its revenues were slightly shy of estimates.
Deere announced that it has agreed to sell its irrigation operations to Israeli private equity fund FIMI Opportunity Funds. The company did not reveal the terms of the deal.
Nordstrom announced a 10 percent increase in its quarterly dividend.
Bed Bath & Beyond announced that it has promoted its CFO and Treasurer Eugene Castagna to the role of COO. Additionally, the company appointed its VP-Finance Susan Lattmann as CFO.
Air Methods , Deckers Outdoor , Gap , Mentor Graphics , Ross Stores , Salesforce.com and Sotheby's are among the companies due to release their quarterly results after the close of trading.
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| | European Market | | After seeing some volatility in early trading, European stocks have retreated sharply in late morning trading.
Tensions in Ukraine intensified, with the Ukrainian hryvnia tumbling to a record low of more than 10 per dollar and the Russian rouble falling to a five-year low versus the dollar in reaction to the Ukrainian central bank's statement that it would no longer intervene to shield the hryvnia currency.
In corporate news, Essilor International posted slightly higher profits in 2013 and said it is targeting for 10-12 percent revenue growth at constant exchange rates in 2014. German insurer Allianz said that its fourth-quarter net income increased to 1.256 billion euros from 1.243 billion euros in the same quarter last year.
British lender Royal Bank of Scotland has unveiled plans to sell its remaining stake in insurance unit Direct Line Insurance Group through a placing of shares in the unit to institutional investors. Dutch supermarket chain Ahold reported a drop in fourth-quarter net income to 215 million euros from 240 million euros last year.
On the economic front, the results of a survey by the European Commission showed that the economic sentiment index unexpectedly rose to 101.2 in February from 101 in January. The index was forecast to drop to 100.7. The industrial confidence index registered a small improvement to -3.4 from -3.8 in January, backed by managers' slightly more optimistic assessment of the stocks of finished products and the current level of overall order books. Meanwhile, the consumer confidence index fell to -12.7 from -11.7.
The German Federal Labor Agency reported that the number of unemployed people in Germany fell by 14,000 to 2.914 million in February, better than the 10,000 increase expected by economists. The jobless rate remained steady at 6.8 percent. Meanwhile, a report released by the German Federal Statistical Office showed that the jobless rate calculated on the basis of ILO standards eased to 5 percent in January from 5.1 percent in December.
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| | Asian Markets | | | | USDCAD | USDEUR | USDGBP | USDJPY |  |  |  |  | | Please click on the images to view our interactive charts | | | The major Asian markets closed mixed on Thursday, with the early closing markets, namely the Australian, New Zealand and Japanese markets, retreating. With the Chinese market extending its gains, the mood turned positive in the region, although caution prevailed ahead of some key events in the U.S.
Japan's Nikkei 225 average languished below the unchanged line for the better part of the session before closing down 47.86 points or 0.32 percent at 14,923. Retail, realty, insurance, utility, resource, banking and telecom stocks came under selling pressure, while the strength in export stocks helped to offset some of the weakness.
Australia's All Ordinaries opened lower and traded below the unchanged line throughout the session. At the close of trading, the index was down 26 points or 0.48 percent at 5,421. The market witnessed broad based weakness, with material and industrial stocks leading the way lower.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index closed at 22,828, up 390.74 points or 1.74 percent, and China's Shanghai Composite Index ended up 6.10 points or 0.30 percent at 2,047.
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| | Currency and Commodities Markets | | Crude Oil futures are slipping $0.03 to $102.56 after rising $0.76 to $102.59 a barrel on Wednesday. The previous session's gains came amid the release of the weekly petroleum status report, which showed that Crude oil stockpiles edged up by 0.1 million barrels to 362.4 million barrels. Inventories were in the upper half of the average range for this time of the year.
Distillate stockpiles rose by 0.3 million barrels but were well below the lower limit of the average range. On the other hand, Gasoline inventories fell by 2.8 million barrels but were in the upper half of the average range. Refinery capacity utilization averaged 87 percent over the four weeks ended February 21st, flat with the levels found over the four weeks ended February 14th.
Gold futures, which fell $14.70 to $1,328 an ounce in the previous session, are currently rising $4.10 to $1,332.10 an ounce.
Among currencies, the U.S. dollar is trading at 102.10 yen compared to the 102.38 yen it fetched at the close of New York trading on Wednesday. Against the euro, the dollar is valued at $1.3656 compared to yesterday's $1.3687.
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