Economy
In reply to the discussion: STOCK MARKET WATCH, Wednesday, December 14, 2011 [View all]Pale Blue Dot
(16,831 posts)U.S. stock futures were little changed as investors bet the worlds largest economy will continue its recovery, offsetting concern that euro-area policy makers are struggling to contain the regions debt crisis.
Futures on the Standard & Poors 500 Index expiring in March dropped less than 0.1 percent to 1,219.9 at 6:31 a.m. in New York. The benchmark gauge retreated yesterday after Federal Reserve policy makers refrained from taking further action to bolster growth. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slipped 16 points, or 0.1 percent, to 11,879.
We do see an improvement in the economic data, Mikio Kumada, a global strategist at LGT Capital Management in Singapore, said in a Bloomberg television interview. U.S. corporations are earning good money. The U.S. is doing relatively well, he said. The worst seems to have passed for the U.S. economy which is now sheltered from the euro-area debt crisis at least to a certain degree, he added.
The S&P 500 has fallen 2.5 percent this year as economic growth slowed and Europes debt crisis spread to Italy and Spain. Still, the gauge is the second-best performer, after New Zealand, of the largest 24 developed markets tracked by Bloomberg News.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-14/u-s-stock-index-futures-rise-s-p-500-may-snap-two-day-decline.html