US stocks are now being called to open higher by 0.5 per cent on average, following the release of what at first glance appears to have been a much stronger than forecast monthly employment report, due above all to the revisions undertaken to previous months´ data.

US non-farm payrolls rose by 157,000 in January, just slightly ahead of the 155,000 gain forecast. Yet data for 2012 was revised higher throughout. Just the two previous month´s figures were revised up by a combined 127,000 persons.

To be had in account, there are still several macroeconomic indicators due to be released today, with the University of Michigan´s consumer confidence index for the month of January chief among them.

Back on the equity front, shares of Exxon Mobil are moving up after the company announced a 6% rise in fourth quarter profits to $9.95bn. Chevron is also higher following its own results.

Chrysler has unveiled a 16% increase in US light vehicle sales for the month of January, its best reading for five years.

Pharmaceutical giant Merck on the other hand is trading down by 3% after its own results.

Acting as a backdrop, the President of the New York Fed, William Dudley, has said that: "short-term wholesale funding markets remain a point of weakness in the global financial system (...) we have not come close to fixing all the institutional flat ws in our wholesale funding markets."

Front month West Texas crude futures are moving higher by 0.06% to the 97.43 dollar per barrel level on the NYMEX.

10 year US Treasury yields are lower by 1 basis point, to the 1.98% mark.

AB

Related share prices