5 Things You Should Know Before the Stock Market Opens
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- U.S. stock futures were suggesting a higher open for Wall Street Wednesday, after stocks snapped a losing streak during the previous trading session with slight gains.
European stocks were rising Wednesday ahead of a rate decision from the European Central Bank and a meeting of the central bank's governing council.
Asian stocks finished with gains. Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 1.8% to close at 8,533.53.
U.S. stocks on Tuesday finished with slight gains as the financial and technology sectors caught a bounce.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 26 points, or 0.22%, to close at 12,128. The positive finish snapped a four-day losing streak for the blue-chip index, which is down 0.7% year to date.The economic calendar in the U.S. Wednesday features data on productivity and unit labor costs for the first quarter at 8:30 a.m. EDT; weekly crude inventories data at 10:30 a.m.; and the release of the Federal Reserve's beige book snapshot of economic conditions for May at 2 p.m.
NASDAQ OMX Group (NDAQ) is starting to take steps to compensate investors following the disastrous Facebook (FB) initial public offering. The Wall Street Journal , citing sources close to the situation, said the exchange operator is going to compensate investors who took part in the Facebook IPO. The exchange's technical problems caused several problems with the offering.
Homebuilder Hovnanian (HOV) is expected by analysts to report a fiscal second-quarter loss of 32 cents a share in the April-ended period on revenue of $299 million. Brown-Forman (BF.A), the maker of premium alcoholic beverages, is expected by analysts Wednesday to post fiscal fourth-quarter earnings of 76 cents a share on revenue of $777.2 million.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, survived a bitter recall vote Tuesday night and was re-elected. Walker handily beat his Democratic rival, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. The recall election was forced by unions and liberal activists after Walker forced through curbs on unions.
-- Written by Joseph Woelfel
>To contact the writer of this article, click here: Joseph Woelfel >To submit a news tip, send an email to: tips@thestreet.com.
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