Morning Briefing: 10 Things You Should Know

U.S. stock futures are sharply lower; Congress returns to Washington to tackle fiscal cliff; Home Depot and Cisco report earnings Tuesday.
By Joseph Woelfel ,

NEW YORK (

TheStreet

) -- U.S. stock futures were sharply lower Wednesday after European finance ministers delayed approval of the next €31.5 billion ($40 billion) installment of Greece's bailout loan.

European stocks were moving to the downside while Asian shares declined. Japan's Nikkei 225 index closed down 0.2%.

The economic calendar in the U.S. Tuesday includes the National Federation of Independent Business' small business optimism survey for October at 7:30 a.m. EST, the weekly ICSC-Goldman Sachs and Johnson Redbook reports on retail sales, and the Treasury Department budget for October at 2 p.m.

U.S. stocks

on Monday finished flat with investors mostly sticking to the sidelines after last week's big pullback following the election results.

The

Dow Jones Industrial Average

dipped less than a point, or 0.23%, to close at 12,815.16.

President Obama on Tuesday kicks off a series of meetings this week with labor officials, business executives and congressional leaders aimed at pushing Congress to avert the so-called fiscal cliff.

Obama plans to meet with corporate CEOs on Wednesday ahead of a meeting Friday with Congressional leaders, who return to Washington Tuesday with just seven weeks to go to reach an agreement on the fiscal cliff.

Microsoft's

(MSFT) - Get Report

Steven Sinofsky, president of Windows and Windows Live, is leaving the software giant.

The company didn't provide a reason for

Sinofsky's departure

which comes just weeks after Microsoft launched Windows 8.

Home Depot

(HD) - Get Report

, the home-improvement retailer, is expected by analysts Tuesday to report third-quarter earnings of 70 cents a share on revenue of $17.92 billion. Home Depot reports before Tuesday's opening bell.

Cisco

(CSCO) - Get Report

, the networking giant, is expected by Wall Street to post fiscal first-quarter profit of 46 cents a share on revenue of $11.78 billion.

Cisco

reports after the markets close Tuesday.

Other companies slated to report on Tuesday include

Bluefly

(BFLY)

,

Crown Crafts

(CRWS) - Get Report

,

Dick's Sporting Goods

(DKS) - Get Report

,

Heelys

(HLYS)

,

Michael Kors Holdings

(KORS)

,

Plug Power

(PLUG) - Get Report

,

Renren

(RENN) - Get Report

,

Saks

(SKS)

,

Superconductor Technologies

(SCON) - Get Report

, and

TJX Cos.

(TJX) - Get Report

.

Yahoo!

(YHOO)

is preparing to launch a major overhaul of Yahoo Mail, which sources told

AllThingsD

has been initiated by new CEO Marissa Mayer and is being made to better compete with the fast-growing mail offering from

Google

.

-- Written by Joseph Woelfel

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

Joseph Woelfel

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.

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

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