Pre-Market News And Views

The S&P 500 e-mini futures(ES M1) are trading lower by 0.50 to 1274.75 this morning. Last night the Nikkei Index(Japan) bounced higher last night by 5.5 percent and this is certainly helping the futures market this morning. All Japanese ADR's could be in focus this morning. Traders should watch stocks such as Sony Corp.SNE, Toyota Motor Corp.TM, and the iShares MSCI Japan Index FundEWJ. Many problems regarding the nuclear reactors in Japan remain and this must be watched closely by investors and traders.

Oil is rising this morning as WTI crude is trading higher by $1.49 to $98.68 a barrel. The highly popular United States Oil FundUSO is trading higher by 0.40 cents to $39.81 a share. The Middle East crisis continues to expand throughout Libya, Bahrain, and numerous other nations. Saudi Arabia has remained calm despite the highly publicized 'Day of Rage' that was scheduled for late last week. It turned out to be a day of calm instead in Saudi Arabia. This helped oil prices to pull back. Should oil spike up again this will adversely effect the major stock indexes.

Housing starts and the Producer Price Index(PPI) were released at 8:30 am EST this morning. Housing starts fell 22.0 percent in February to 479,000 units. The expectation by economists was for 570,000 units. Building permits declined by 8.2 percent to 517,000 which is a new record low. The PPI was up by 1.6 percent as food and energy prices surged. Core PPI which excludes food and energy rose 0.02 percent. These reports seems to have very little effect on the markets today as the futures are trading basically flat this morning.

Nicholas Santiago
InTheMoneyStocks.com