Wall Street is now being called to open modestly higher, with gains of a half percentage point in the Dow Jones Industrial and S&P 500 but smaller gains anticipated on the Nasdaq Comp.. The latter is barely expected to be in the blue at the start of trading.

While it will take time to return to normality in Big Apple a modicum of it is expected to be achieved today on the trading floors. Nevertheless, and as NYSE-Euronext´s Chief Executive signaled overnight, it would not be realistic to expect a completely normal day.

GM and Ford have both released better than expected quarterly results. Of interest as well, Home Depot and Lowe´s are expected to do well, in anticipation that they will benefit from repair and reconstruction efforts.

Walt Disney is to acquire Lucasfilm for $4.03bn.

According to some reports Microsoft will finally not be making an offer for Netflix.

Not to be lost sight of either, investors are also keen to see next Friday´s monthly employment report.

Of interest, today is the last day of the month and of the year for some mutual funds, with the next two months being historically quite positive for shares, as funds seek to re-position themselves.

More data releases ahead today

The employment cost index for the third quarter showed a 0.4% quarter-on-quarterly gain in the three months to September, slightly below the 0.5% economists had foreseen.

The Chicago NAPM manufacturing sector gauge for the month of October is due to be released at 13:45.

Little movement in other asset classes
10 year US Treasuries will fall by 4/32 dollars this morning, with yields left standing at 1.73%.

Front month West Texas crude futures are rising by 0.85% to the 86.41 dollar level on the NYMEX.



AB

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