The main US equity benchmarks are now being called to open slightly lower, with average losses of 0.3%.

That following last night's speech by Fed President Ben Bernanke and despite the generally better than forecast macroeconomic figures out this morning.

The Chief of the US central bank indicated that there is little to worry about as regards inflation risks, although the monetary authority will monitor the benefits of its current lax monetary policy.

Weighing on sentiment, in part, is the renewed sparring - and concomitant uncertainty - on Capitol Hill over the fiscal cliff.

In a more favourable tone for the markets, the Presidents of the Federal Reserve Banks of Boston and Minneapolis have gone on record this morning as supporting the current easy policy stance.

Nomura cut its price target on Apple to $530 per share from $600 before.

Strong retail sales numbers

Retail sales rose at a 0.5% month-on-month clip in December (Consensus: 0.4%) and by another 0.3% if sales of automobiles are excluded (Consensus: 0.2%).

The New York Fed's manufacturing gauge for the month of January came in at -7.78 after last month's reading of -7.3 (Consensus: 0.0).

Producer prices fell at a 0.2% month-on-month pace in December (Consensus: -0.1%).

US crude futures retreat
Front month West Texas crude futures are now falling by 0,416 dollars to the 93.75 dollar per barrel mark on the NYMEX.

10 year US Treasury yields are now down by four basis points to the 1.83% mark.



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