The main US equity averages are being called to start today's session lower by 0.3% on average.

That on a day bereft of macroeconomic data releases but with the 'news-flow' related to the 'fiscal-cliff' picking up. In that regard, yesterday night President Obama called for Congress to act on a short-term compendium of spending cuts and tax-code changes to replace the so-called 'sequestration' of some federal spending.

Many Republicans, however, are balking at Democrats' calls for additional revenue cuts.

Of possible interest, calculations by Vickers Weekly Insider Report show that for the week that ended last Friday the ratio of all shares that insiders have recently sold in the open market to the number that they have purchased stood at 9.20-to-1, according to Marketwatch.com.

On average over the month following each prior occasion when the sell-to-buy ratio got this high, the broad market fell by 2.1% — as measured by the Wilshire 5000 total-return index. The last time it got this high was in July 2011.

Zynga is higher after the release of better than expected results yesterday.

According to some published reports Hewlett-Packard is considering a break-up of the company.

Online travel-booking service Expedia has posted fourth quarter sales of $974.9m, which came in well ahead of consensus forecasts.

AB

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