5 Things You Should Know Before the Stock Market Opens

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- U.S. stock futures were pointing slightly higher Tuesday after China posted weak trade figures for June.

Stocks in Asia declined after China said growth for its imports fell in June by half from May's level to 6.3% while exports rose 11.3%, but below May's 15.3%.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index finished 0.4% lower to 8,857.73 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 0.2% to 19,396.36.

European stocks were rising after finance ministers in the eurozone agreed early Tuesday on the terms of a bailout for Spain's troubled banks.

U.S. stocks on Monday posted losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 36 points, or 0.28%, to 12,736. The S&P 500 dipped 2 points, or 0.16%, to finish at 1352, and the Nasdaq shed nearly 6 points, or 0.19%, to settle at 2931.

---

The economic calendar in the U.S. Tuesday includes the National Federation of Independent Business's small-business optimism survey for June at 7:30 a.m. EDT.

---

Intel (INTC) announced Monday a series of deals totaling $4.1 billion with semiconductor manufacturing specialist ASML Holding (ASML) as the chipmaker looks to boost silicon manufacturing.

Intel will invest about $1 billion in ASML's research and development over five years, and will eventually take a $3.1 billion, 15% stake in Netherlands-based ASML.

---

Google (GOOG) is close to paying $22.5 million to settle charges related to its bypassing of the privacy settings of customers using Apple's Safari browser, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing officials briefed on the settlement terms.

The fine is expected to be the largest penalty ever levied on a single company by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, the Journal said.

The current charges involve Google's use of special computer code to trick Safari into letting it monitor users that had blocked such tracking. Google disabled the code after being contacted by the Journal, which first wrote about Google's practices in February.

---

Barclays (BCS) said Tuesday it agreed to a resignation package with outgoing CEO Bob Diamond. He will continue to receive his salary, pension allowance and other benefits for up to 12 months but will forfeit a number of bonus awards and incentives, according to The Associated Press.

The bank was fined $453 million by U.S. and U.K. agencies for making false reports of its borrowing costs between 2005 and 2009. Diamond resigned last week.

---

-- Written by Joseph Woelfel



>To contact the writer of this article, click here: Joseph Woelfel

>To submit a news tip, send an email to: [e-mail].

Copyright 2012 TheStreet.com Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. AP contributed to this report.