The main US equity benchmarks are now being called to open higher by 0.2% on average. That ahead of the release of data on existing home sales and speeches from two members of the Federal Reserve board, including one from Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke himself.

The latest results out from the likes of General Mills and Autozone have beat on the ´bottom-line´, but not so on sales.

Cypress Semiconductor is to acquire Ramtron for $109m.

Sun Trust Banks, BB&T and Huntington Bancorp have been downgraded by analysts at Bernstein to neutral.

US housing starts rose by 2.3% month-on-month, to an annualized rate of 750,000 (Consensus: 2.8%), while the previous month´s variation was revised down to show a fall of -2.8%, instead of the preliminary reading of -1.1%.

Front month West Texas crude futures are now down by 0.76% to the 94.57 dollar per barrel level in NYMEX trading.

10 year US Treasuries are moving higher by 9/32 dollars, with yields at 1.78%.

AB

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