Market Morning: Facebook, Amazon in Focus
NEW YORK (
) -- U.S. stock futures were rising Wednesday and European stocks gained on better-than-expected Chinese manufacturing data and continued optimism over a debt deal in Greece.
Asian stocks ended mixed. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 rose less than 0.1% to close at 8,809.79, and the Kospi in South Korea rose 0.2%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 0.3%.
, the
Dow Jones Industrial Average
fell 20.8 points, or 0.2%, to 12,633, ending January with a gain of 3.4%. The
S&P 500
lost 0.6 point, or 0.05%, to close at 1,312. The S&P 500 advanced 4.4% in January for its best performance during the month since 1997.
The Nasdaq rose 0.1% on Tuesday and closed out the month with a gain of 8%.
The economic calendar in the U.S. Wednesday includes the Mortgage Bankers Association's weekly index of application activity at 7 a.m. EST; Automatic Data Processing's employment change report for January at 8:15 a.m.; the Institute of Supply Management's index of manufacturing activity for January at 10 a.m.; and construction spending for December at 10 a.m.
is expected to file its IPO Wednesday, according to reports, but the offering size could be cut to make it more attractive to investors, according to reports.
IFR
reported the
is eyeing a $5 billion IPO, smaller than originally planned because it wants to start off with a conservative base of investors.
Morgan Stanley
(MS) - Get Report
is expected to be the lead bookrunner on the IPO,
IFR
said.
Deutsche Boerse
said Wednesday the European Commission will block its planned $10 billion merger with
NYSE Euronext
(NYX)
.
"Based on its definition of the market for derivatives trading, (the commission) considers the merger to be inadmissible under competition law," Deutsche Boerse said in a statement.
Amazon.com
(AMZN) - Get Report
, the giant Internet retailer
, posted fourth-quarter sales below analysts' estimates
and said it could report a first-quarter operating loss.
Amazon posted fourth-quarter earnings of $177 million, or 38 cents a share, on sales of $17.43 billion.
The average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters was for earnings of 17 cents a share in the quarter on sales of $18.25 billion.
Amazon forecast first-quarter sales of $12 billion to $13.4 billion, and operating results between a loss of $200 million and a profit of $100 million, "or between 162% decline and 69% decline compared with first quarter 2011."
Analysts are looking for earnings of 33 cents a share in the first quarter on sales of $13.41 billion.
rolled to victory Tuesday night in the Florida Republican presidential primary as voters flocked to the former Massachusetts governor following two solid debate performances and a relentless advertising campaign.
Romney won 46% of the vote to Newt Gingrich's 32%, according to
Reuters
.
-- Written by Joseph Woelfel
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