10 Things You Need To Know Before The Opening Bell

10 Things Before Opening Bell

January 26, 2015

Advertisement Good morning! Here are the 10 major things you need to know in markets today. Radical-Left Syriza Won A Massive Victory In Greece. With the vast majority of the votes counted, Greece's anti-austerity Syriza party has taken 36% of the vote at the General Election, about 8% more than the governing conservatives. The latest official projection from the Interior Ministry gives the party 149 seats in the 300-seat parliament - two short of a majority, but more than analysts expected them to manage. The Win Pushed The Euro To New 11-Year Lows. Near midnight GMT (6:48 p.m. ET) on Sunday, the euro was down to as low as 1.1098 against the US dollar, a new 11-year low for the currency which was slammed last week after the European Central Bank announced a new quantitative easing program. And Oil Fell Back Below $45. At around midnight (6:54 p.m. ET), the price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil was down another 2.5% to $44.35 a barrel. It's now back to $45, while Brent crude sits at $48.26 per barrel. Markets Are Down A Little. US futures are in the red with Dow futures down 71 points and S&P futures down 6.9 points. Europe is mixed with Britain's FTSE down 0.5%, France's CAC flat, Germany's DAX up 0.7%, and Greece's ASE down 2.6%. Japan's Nikkei dropped 0.25%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed 0.2%.  Japan's Trade Deficit Hit A Record $109 Billion In 2014. The shortfall of 12,781 billion yen ($109 billion) was up 11.4% percent from the 2013 deficit and the worst since records began in 1979, according to the finance ministry. In December alone, however, the deficit almost halved from the year before's level to 660.7 billion yen, thanks to lower oil prices. Exports jumped 12.9%in the final month of 2014. German Confidence Improves. Germany's IFO index of private sector confidence climbed to 106.7 in January from 105.5 in December. This was slightly better than the 106.5 expected by economists. "Business confidence continues to increase in Germany, but the pace of improvement is moderate compared to the leap in investor sentiment," Pantheon Macroeconomics' Claus Vistesen said. "The improvement in January was broad-based across all key industries with especially the retail sector seeing a substantial rise." US Gasoline Prices Tumble Again. "The average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States fell 13.3 cents in the past two weeks, falling to its lowest level since late April 2009, but the end of a months-long slide may be near, according to the Lundberg survey released Sunday," Reuters' Luc Cohen reported. "Prices for regular grade gasoline fell to $2.07 a gallon in the survey dated Jan. 23 from the previous survey on Jan. 9." President Obama Is In Talks In India With Prime Minister Modi. The two sides have worked to reach agreements on climate change, taxation and defence cooperation in time for the visit. Talks on a hoped-for deal on civil nuclear trade went down to the wire with no clear solution at the weekend. Obama will be the first US President to attend India's Republic Day today.  Volkswagen Are Recalling 80,000 Audis. German car maker Volkswagen AG will recall 80,000 cars from its luxury division Audi due to issues with the fuel injection system, Audi said on Saturday, adding that around 35,000 of the affected vehicles are from China. A Blizzard's Coming. Meteorologists forecast a historic snowstorm will slam the Northeastfrom Monday evening through Tuesday. Some parts are expected to see up to 2 feet of snow.