- Barclays positive on Wednesday's retail sales report
- Fed: Bullard optimistic on economy
- Fed: Bullard says can slow bond buying if economic news strong
- Fed: Bullard says US flirting with too-high debt/GDP ratio
- IEA warns on 2013 oil demand

Dow Jones Industrials: -0.26%
Nasdaq Comp.: 0.29%
S&P 500: 0.07%

The main US equity benchmarks are trading in a slightly 'mixed' fashion in late afternoon trading following the release of a tad weaker than expected economic data and, perhaps, some negative news flow regarding the current stand-off in Congress.

Significantly, in an interview with Bloomberg TV bond fund manager Mohammed El-Erian, from PIMCO, described yesterday's speech from President Obama as 'impressive.' He believes that Obama's speech was indeed an effort to reach 'across the aisle.'

Amongst other things, Obama called for an increase in the minimum wage and $50bn in infrastructure spending.

As regards today's retail sales report, Barclays Research does not agree with other commentators that the numbers are negative. This afternoon they issued a research note telling clients that: "Given upward revisions at the end of the fourth quarter, the level of core sales in January was broadly in line with our projection, despite the softer-than-expected growth rate, and it is an encouraging sign that sales did not drop-off from the upwardly revised level in December.

"The details of the report provide cause for encouragement as well (...) In other words, there is no clear signal yet of a broad-based pullback in spending on the back of the tax hikes."

Acting as a backdrop, the President of the Federal Reserve bank of St.Louis, James Bullard, indicated: "Uncertainty about the global economic outlook has diminished and this bodes well for the U.S. growth outlook."

Agricultural equipment maker Deere&Co. soundly beat analysts' profits and sales forecasts. Unfortunately, the firm anticipates that industry-wide farm-machinery sales in the US and Canada will be about flat with 2012 this year.

FMC Technologies, the provider of subsea gear to the oil services industry, climbed the most in 18 months after beating expectations for orders last quarter and forecasting another record year.

Shares of General Electric climbed 3% after announcing the sale of its remaining stake in NBC Universal to Comcast for $16.7bn.

Western Union slid 1% after warning that revenues will decline in 2013.

The county's biggest dairy processor, Dean Foods, expects to see a decline in volumes this year.

Shares of Cliffs Natural Resources are plummeting by 20%. The iron-ore producer cut its quarterly dividend by 76%.

The best performing sectors at the moment are Renewable Energies (4.25%), Real Estate (2.17%) and Diversified industrials (1.81%).

Retail sales data not as poor as expected

US retail sales rose by 0.1 per cent month-on-month in January, as expected. However, if sales of automobiles and gas are excluded then retail sales in the first month of the year were actually slightly weaker than forecast.

Nevertheless, economists interpreted the data in a favourable light.

Import prices increased at a 0.6 per cent month-on-month clip, less than the 0.9 per cent gain forecast.

The previous month's figures were revised lower.

Oil and yields grind slightly higher
Yields on US 10 year bonds are now rising by 4 basis points to the 2.02% mark.

Front month West Texas crude futures are now sliding 0.46% to the 97.06 dollar per barrel mark on the NYMEX. The IEA has voiced worries forecasts for the pace of growth in oil demand this year could be overly optimistic.

S&P 500 - Risers
FMC Technologies Inc. (FTI) $50.39 +4.85%
Lorillard Inc. (LO) $41.64 +4.83%
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) $185.52 +4.25%
Best Buy Co. Inc. (BBY) $16.02 +3.82%
Amazon.Com Inc. (AMZN) $267.97 +3.58%
General Electric Co. (GE) $23.38 +3.54%
NASDAQ OMX Group Inc. (NDAQ) $31.51 +3.14%
LyondellBasell Industries (LYB) $62.38 +3.09%
Devon Energy Corp. (DVN) $61.28 +2.94%
Progressive Corp. (PGR) $24.44 +2.91%

S&P 500 - Fallers
Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (CLF) $29.19 -20.27%
Dean Foods Co. (DF) $16.53 -10.11%
Hospira Inc. (HSP) $32.60 -6.74%
Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc. (DPS) $42.31 -6.65%
Fossil Inc. (FOSL) $103.90 -6.10%
Carnival Corp. (CCL) $37.31 -4.38%
WellPoint Inc. (WLP) $63.16 -4.32%
First Solar Inc. (FSLR) $32.41 -3.94%
Deere & Co. (DE) $90.90 -3.27%
Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) $16.10 -2.78%

Dow Jones I.A - Risers
General Electric Co. (GE) $23.38 +3.54%
Alcoa Inc. (AA) $9.08 +0.55%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $76.40 +0.55%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $27.99 +0.39%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $21.04 +0.33%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $57.18 +0.30%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $67.34 +0.03%

Dow Jones I.A - Fallers
Boeing Co. (BA) $74.65 -1.76%
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $37.08 -1.28%
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $93.96 -1.20%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $115.29 -1.04%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $96.23 -1.02%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $41.04 -0.98%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $48.67 -0.96%
Bank of America Corp. (BAC) $12.14 -0.90%
E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. (DD) $47.55 -0.90%
Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) $16.98 -0.70%

Nasdaq 100 - Risers
Amazon.Com Inc. (AMZN) $267.97 +3.58%
Catamaran Corp (CTRX) $53.58 +2.70%
Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) $39.99 +2.63%
Garmin Ltd. (GRMN) $38.53 +2.26%
Starz Class A (STRZA) $18.57 +2.20%
Facebook Inc. (FB) $27.92 +2.01%
Fastenal Co. (FAST) $51.91 +1.78%
Life Technologies Corp. (LIFE) $63.35 +1.77%
Express Scripts Holding Co (ESRX) $55.26 +1.69%
Monster Beverage Corp (MNST) $47.51 +1.60%

Nasdaq 100 - Fallers
Fossil Inc. (FOSL) $103.90 -6.10%
Nuance Communications Inc. (NUAN) $18.50 -2.17%
Equinix Inc. (EQIX) $209.99 -2.12%
Vodafone Group Plc ADS (VOD) $26.69 -1.98%
Citrix Systems Inc. (CTXS) $72.25 -1.81%
Sba Communications Corp. (SBAC) $67.04 -1.80%
Dollar Tree Stores Inc. (DLTR) $39.58 -1.62%
DIRECTV (DTV) $51.47 -1.46%
Staples Inc. (SPLS) $12.86 -1.38%
Liberty Global Inc. Series A (LBTYA) $66.85 -1.27%



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