Morning Briefing: 10 Things You Should Know

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Here are 10 things you should know for Tuesday, Feb. 5:

1. -- U.S. stock futures were suggesting Wall Street would open higher Tuesday after equities suffered their worst one-day declines of the year in the previous session.

European stocks were rising slightly. Asian shares ended mostly lower Tuesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 1.9% to 11,046.92.

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2. -- The economic calendar in the U.S. Tuesday includes the Institute for Supply Management's January non-manufacturing index. The report will be issued at 10 a.m. and economists surveyed by Reuters forecast a reading of 55.2 compared with 55.7 in December.

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3. -- U.S. stocks slumped on Monday, dragged down by political uncertainties in Europe and disappointing factory orders here at home.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 102 points, or 0.7%, to 13,908.

The S&P 500 fell 17 points, or 1.2%, to 1,496. The Nasdaq slid 48 points, or 1.5%, to 3,131.

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4. -- The U.S. Justice Department sued Standard & Poor's Ratings Services late Monday for improperly giving high ratings to toxic mortgage bonds before the financial crisis.

S&P said in a statement prior to the filing of the lawsuit Monday that it denied any wrongdoing and said the government suit would be "entirely without factual or legal merit."

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5. -- BP (BP), the energy giant, said fourth-quarter earnings fell 79%, largely because of payouts related to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

BP said net profit fell to $1.62 billion in the fourth quarter from $7.69 billion a year earlier. BP recorded a charge of $3.85 billion for its settlement of all federal criminal charges with the U.S. government related to the spill.

The fourth-quarter results topped analysts' expectations.

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6. -- Yum! Brands (YUM) said Monday that fourth-quarter profit fell 5% and it warned that it expects earnings for the year to decline amid a controversy over its chicken suppliers in China.

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7. -- Entertainment giant Walt Disney (DIS) is expected by Wall Street analysts Tuesday to report fiscal first-quarter earnings of 76 cents a share on revenue of $11.21 billion.

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8. -- Switzerland's biggest bank UBS (UBS) posted a fourth-quarter loss of 1.9 billion francs ($2.1 billion) in the wake of a series of lawsuits, scandals and restructuring costs.

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9. -- Virgin Media, the U.K.'s No. 2 pay-TV company, confirmed Tuesday it has opened takeover talks with John Malone's Liberty Global (LBTYA).

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10. -- Toyota (TM) said profit for its October-December quarter jumped 23% and the automaker raised its fiscal year profit forecast to 860 billion yen ($9.3 billion), up from its initial expectations of 780 billion yen ($8.5 billion) profit.

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-- Written by Joseph Woelfel



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