With aluminium producer Alcoa set to fire the starting gun for the fourth quarter results season after the bell tonight, investors are sitting on their hands.

St. Louis Fed President James Bullard put a dampener on proceedings over the week-end when he predicted that the US central bank may not proceed with a new round of bond purchases following 'encouraging' jobs data last Friday.

Offsetting this, Goldman Sachs has raised its 2012 US gross domestic product forecast to 2%.

A press conference from German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy in which they outlined the latest reheated plans to tackle the Eurozone debt crisis had little impact on shares.

Merkel confirmed that if there is no progress on negotiating the Greek aid package, Greece would not get the next hand-out from the bail-out fund.

She also said that plans to introduce a so-called Tobin tax - minuscule levies on financial transactions - are being worked on, with a planned introduction date of March. Sarkozy, meanwhile, seemed to go even further in suggesting the tax should be introduced as soon as possible.

Back Stateside, US drugs firm Bristol-Myers Squibb will pay $2.5bn in cash to acquire Inhibitex, the second largest maker of hepatitis C drugs. The acquisition is expected to be completed within two months as the company looks to position itself in a developing market potentially worth $20bn.

Shares in Inhibitex shot up as the $26 per share offer from Bristol-Myers was pitched at more than twice Friday's closing price of $9.87.

Netflix is trading up after the roll-out of its video services in the UK, but computer game retailer GameStop is left on the shelf after it lowered like-for-like sales guidance after it saw a decline in demand over Christmas.

BROKER ROUND-UP

Abercrombie & Fitch: Brean Murray downgrades to hold from buy, price target of $70.

Akamai Technologies: Jefferies & Co upgrades to hold from underweight, price target of $36.

Broadcom: Deutsche Bank Securities upgrades to buy from hold, price target of $35; FBR Capital reiterates underweight, price target of $41 (vs. $45).

Merck: Broker Jefferies has downgraded shares of to hold from buy.

Newmont Mining: CIBC World Markets upgrades to hold from underweight, price target of $86.

Oracle: BMO Capital downgrades to hold from overweight, price target of $30 (vs. $32).

Travelers Companies: Goldman Sachs reiterates buy, price target of $67. Adds stock to Conviction Buy list.


OTHER MARKETS

West Texas crude for February delivery is down 87 cents to $100.70 a barrel in NYMEX trading.

10-year US treasuries are now up by 10/32 dollars, with yields at 1.92%.

S&P 500 - Risers
Juniper Networks Inc. (JNPR) $21.61 +5.78%
Ralph Lauren Corp (RL) $146.11 +3.85%
St Jude Medical Inc. (STJ) $35.94 +3.84%
Regions Financial Corp. (RF) $4.56 +3.40%
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) $88.92 +3.05%
First Solar Inc. (FSLR) $36.33 +3.01%

S&P 500 - Fallers
CareFusion Corp. (CFN) $23.08 -9.42%
GameStop Corp. (GME) $23.84 -4.14%
International Game Technology (IGT) $16.70 -3.64%
AFLAC Inc. (AFL) $42.74 -3.39%
Google Inc. (GOOG) $628.16 -3.36%
Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (CMG) $338.10 -3.11%

Dow Jones I.A - Risers
Alcoa Inc. (AA) $9.39 +2.52%
Bank of America Corp. (BAC) $6.25 +1.13%

Dow Jones I.A - Fallers
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $27.78 -1.14%
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) $180.71 -1.00%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $38.09 -0.99%

Nasdaq 100 - Risers
First Solar Inc. (FSLR) $36.33 +3.01%
Broadcom Corp. (BRCM) $30.79 +2.17%
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (VRTX) $34.77 +2.11%
Xilinx Inc. (XLNX) $32.82 +2.02%

Nasdaq 100 - Fallers
Google Inc. (GOOG) $628.16 -3.36%
Baidu Inc. (BIDU) $117.22 -3.20%
Expedia Inc. (EXPE) $28.45 -2.72%
Amazon.Com Inc. (AMZN) $178.06 -2.49%
Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST) $79.17 -2.42%
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) $19.25 -2.14%
Logitech International S.A. (LOGI) $7.63 -2.05%


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