-EU weighs easing rules on liquidity -WSJ
-Portugal does not represent same risk to Eurozone that Greece does -Fitch

DJI: 0.99%
Nasdaq Comp.: 1.32%
S&P 500: 1.08%

The major US equity benchmarks are still trading comfortably higher today. Although at first glance today's macroeconomic releases might look a bit mixed at best upon closer examination they are actually not so downbeat, particularly the most important of those, the ISM manufacturing survey.

Very much worth highlighting as regards the latter, the improvement seen in several of the main sub-indexes, such as those linked to new orders, order backlogs and exports.

Against that backdrop, and still amongst the main movers in the market are shares of internet retailer Amazon.com, after it unveiled a slowdown in its sales growth rate last night.

Morgan Stanley, on the other hand, is trading up sharply on news that it has been chosen to manage Facebook's initial public offering (IPO).

Seagate Technologies is flying higher on news of an upgrade from broker Stifel and following the announcement of a tripling in its quarterly earnings. The company's sales were helped by a reduced supply of hard drives following the flooding in Thailand.

Whirlpool is another big gainer after it provided better than forecast 2012 sales guidance.

Hershey is flat despite an increase in its dividend policy.

Quarterly results from Thermo Fisher and Northrop Grumman have come in better than expected.

From a sector stand-point the best performers now are: business training (6.29%), full line insurance (5.37%) and platinum (3.23%).

MACROECONOMY

US private sector payrolls rose by 170,000 in January (Consensus: 185,000), according to the latest ADP report, while the previous month's reading has been revised down to 292,000 from a preliminary estimate of 325,000.

The ISM manufacturing sector purchasing managers' index for the month of January rose to 54.1 points (Consensus: 54.5) from 53.1 the month before (revised down from 53.9). For economists at Barclays Capital, "All in all, a positive report - the increase in new orders suggests solid output growth in coming months and the dip in the production level is likely indicative of the recent mini-inventory cycle, rather than a notable drop in demand."

Construction spending grew by 1.5% on the month in December (Consensus: 0.7%). The better than expected reading, however, seems to have been more than made up for by a downwards revision to the previous month's data.

OTHER MARKETS

Front month West Texas crude futures are now rising by 0.61% to the $90.07/barrel mark in NYMEX trading.

10 year US Treasuries are now down by 11/32 dollars, with yields at 1.84%.

S&P 500 - Risers
Whirlpool Corp. (WHR) $63.76 +17.38%
Broadcom Corp. (BRCM) $37.37 +8.79%
Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC) $41.40 +8.33%
American International Group Inc. (AIG) $26.84 +6.89%
Mylan Inc. (MYL) $22.10 +6.53%
Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) $27.43 +6.19%
Morgan Stanley (MS) $19.70 +5.63%
PulteGroup Inc. (PHM) $7.87 +5.62%
MEMC Electronic Materials (WFR) $4.82 +5.47%
Avery Dennison Corp. (AVY) $28.58 +5.29%

S&P 500 - Fallers
Amazon.Com Inc. (AMZN) $179.23 -7.82%
CH Robinson Worldwide Inc (CHRW) $64.10 -6.89%
Southwestern Energy Co. (SWN) $30.48 -2.12%
ONEOK Inc. (OKE) $81.98 -1.42%
CBRE Group Inc (CBG) $19.05 -1.30%
BMC Software Inc. (BMC) $35.84 -1.16%
Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD) $41.68 -1.09%
Expeditors International Of Washington Inc. (EXPD) $44.18 -1.05%
Monster Worldwide Inc. (MWW) $7.13 -0.97%
Walgreen Co. (WAG) $33.10 -0.78%

Dow Jones I.A - Risers
Bank of America Corp. (BAC) $7.39 +3.58%
Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) $28.81 +2.95%
United Technologies Corp. (UTX) $80.11 +2.25%
Boeing Co. (BA) $75.75 +2.12%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $59.44 +1.96%
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $39.59 +1.77%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $110.88 +1.61%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $29.99 +1.57%
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) $62.31 +1.55%
E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. (DD) $51.66 +1.51%

Dow Jones I.A - Fallers
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $98.54 -0.51%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $65.82 -0.14%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $103.00 -0.11%

Nasdaq 100 - Risers
Seagate Technology Plc (STX) $25.75 +21.81%
Broadcom Corp. (BRCM) $37.37 +8.79%
Logitech International S.A. (LOGI) $8.07 +6.61%
Mylan Inc. (MYL) $22.10 +6.53%
NetApp Inc. (NTAP) $39.53 +4.74%
Foster Wheeler AG (FWLT) $23.24 +3.47%
Intuit Inc. (INTU) $58.38 +3.44%
Biogen Idec Inc. (BIIB) $121.95 +3.39%
Autodesk Inc. (ADSK) $37.15 +3.19%
Lam Research Corp. (LRCX) $43.83 +2.91%

Nasdaq 100 - Fallers
Amazon.Com Inc. (AMZN) $179.23 -7.82%
CH Robinson Worldwide Inc (CHRW) $64.10 -6.89%
Qiagen N.V. (QGEN) $15.55 -3.89%
BMC Software Inc. (BMC) $35.84 -1.16%
Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD) $41.68 -1.09%
Expeditors International Of Washington Inc. (EXPD) $44.18 -1.05%
Illumina Inc. (ILMN) $51.54 -0.62%
Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI) $12.28 -0.45%
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) $18.51 -0.35%
PACCAR Inc. (PCAR) $44.08 -0.27%

AB

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