US stocks are set to open higher after the European Central Bank confirmed it will carry out unlimited bond purchases, which will be, in the industry jargon, 'sterilised'. The European Central Bank left its key lending rate unchanged, however.

Stateside, US private sector employment rose by 201,000 in August (Consensus: 140,000), according to the latest report out from payrolls processing firm ADP.

First time jobless claims fell 12,000 to a seasonally djusted 365,000 last week, the largest weekly drop since mid-July. The market had been expecting the number of claimants signing on for the first time last week to be around 373,000.

On the corporate front, online retailer Amazon is rumoured to be the latest company attempting to depose king of the smartphone sector Apple, with a mobile phone using the same version of Google's Android operating system as is used on Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet.

Amazon is expected to announce the handset this afternoon in Los Angeles at the same time as it unveils a revamped Kindle Fire 2 tablet.

Credit card terminals operator VeriFone Systems is set to fall back after its third quarter sales figures, released after the bell yesterday, came in below expectations.

Analysts had been expecting third quarter sales of $498.7m but what they got was a figure of $489.1m, with a fire in the company's Brazilian staging-and-repair centre partly responsible for the shortfall.

Lender Bank of America is to sell its Strategic Partners subsidiary to private equity buyers Partners Group Holding AG and Avista Capital Partners.

Spread betting sites suggest the Dow Jones will open around 85 points higher while the S&P 500 is seen advancing almost 10 points at the outset.


JH

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