The main US equity gauges have begun the day clearly lower against the backdrop of a negative news-flow out of the Eurozone and Cyprus and ahead of the release of a barrage of important economic indicators, in half an hour's time.

On the corporate front the most talked about feature at the open is the sharp drop being seen in shares of software maker Oracle, following its latest results out last night.

Also of interest, Blackstone Group LP, which is considering a bid for Dell, has approached Oracle's President Mark Hurd about running the computer maker, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, Bloomberg reports.

Hurd is a former Chief Executive Officer of Hewlett Packard.

Initial weekly unemployment claims dropped by 10,000 to 332,000 (Consensus: 343,000), to near a five year low.

Among the data yet to be released are the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia's manufacturing gauge for the month of March, the Conference Board's leading economic indicators for February and the latest existing home sales figures.

Front month West Texas crude futures are down by 0.37% to the $93.18/barrel on the NYMEX.

10 year US Treasury yields are down by 2 basis points, to 1.94%.

AB

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