The main US equity benchmarks are now being called to open lower by a tenth of a percentage point on average. Nevertheless, they have trimmed their losses following the release of a much better than expected payrolls number from private consultancy ADP.

Those figures -which are often quite volatile- have buttressed sentiment ahead of tomorrow´s monthly employment report.

In any case, the current budget negotiations on Capitol Hill continue to be foremost on investors´ minds, particularly given the very cool response from the main ratings agencies, overnight, to the mini-pact reached last Tuesday in Washington.

As well, the more reliable weekly unemployment claims data have overshot expectations.

At first glance, the latest comparable sales data from the nation´s main retailers are coming in mixed this morning.

On a more positive note, JMP Securities has upgraded its view on shares of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

Hormel Foods is to purchase Skippy Peanut Butter from Unilever for $700m.

Stronger than forecast ADP number

Private sector payrolls in the US gained by 215,000 last month according to data from private consultant ADP (Consensus: 140,000), after an upwardly revised gain of 148,000 for November (from 118,000).

Weekly US initial unemployment claims rose to 372,000 last week, up from 362,000 (upwardly revised from an initial reading of 350,000 for the week before) and versus a consensus forecast of 362,000.

Lay-off announcements at large US corporations came in at 32,556 for that same month, after a rise of 57,100 in the previous month, according to the so-called Challenger survey.

All of the above figures come ahead of the release of tomorrow´s monthly employment report in the US.

Large drop in crude futures
Front month West Texas crude futures are now retreating by 0.529 dollars, to the 92.63 dollar per barrel mark on the NYMEX.

10 year US Treasury yields are now flat at 1.84%.



AB

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