The banking sector will remain in focus today as Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will speak today about the state of the economy and the bank stress test results.
What To Watch For In The US Session
• Bernanke To Speak On Economy
• Banks Start To Raise Capital
U.S. Futures Lower Ahead OF Bernanke Speech, Banks Remain In Focus
The banking sector will remain in focus today as Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will speak today about the state of the economy and the bank stress test results. Several of the 19 banks have started to issue common shares to meet their capital requirements mandated by the government’s worst case scenario including U.S. Bancorp and Capital One Financial Corp. Traders are questioning what the market reaction will be to the influx of all the new paper form the same sector. A lack of demand could weigh on the whole sector. Also, traders are starting to become concerned that consumer consumption will decline with unemployment reaching 8.9% and climbing. Therefore, we could see caution ahead of this week’s U.S. retail sales report.
Dow Jones 8574.64
The DJIA futures have remained in negative territory and following the sell off in European we could see similar price action today.
NASDAQ 1739.00
The Nasdaq has started to come under pressure as money is rotating out of the tech sector which was used as a safe haven during the height of the crisis.
S&P 500 929.23
The S&P 500 may also be weighed down by concerns over domestic growth as expectations are that the labor market will take considerable time to erase the monumental losses of the past six months.
