10 Things You Need To Know Before The Opening Bell

Eric Platt

 Aug. 14, 2012

Larry Busacca/Getty Images

Good morning. Here's what you need to know.

• Markets in Asia gained in overnight trade, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng up 1.1 percent. Shares in Europe are up moderately in afternoon trade and U.S. futures point to a positive open.

• Euro area GDP declined by 0.2 percent in the second quarter, flash estimates from the EU's statistics office shows. The euro area core continued to outperform the periphery according to the new data.

• German GDP rose 0.3 percent from the first quarter, ahead of expectations for a 0.2 percent advance. French GDP was unchanged in the second quarter, better than the 0.1 percent decline forecast.

• Greece completed its largest debt sale in two years this morning, raising €4.063 billion through a 13-week treasury bill auction. The short term sale is expected to fund the repayment of bonds held by the ECB next week. The bonds yielded 4.43 percent.

• Indian inflation cooled in July, falling to an annual pace of 6.87 percent. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a 7.37 percent jump.

• Home Depot beat bottom line expectations this morning, earning $1.53 billion, or $1.01 per share. Core product sales boosted the company's sales two percent to $20.57 billion. Analysts were expecting quarterly results of $0.97 on revenues of $20.74 billion.

• Groupon also posted better-than-expected net income during the period, even as sales came up light. The company reported earnings per share of $0.08 on sales of $568.3 million.

• Walmart received approval to buy a majority stake in Chinese e-commerce company Yihaodin, helping the world's largest retailer to establish its online presence in China. Walmart did not disclose the cost of the deal. 

• U.S. economic announcements kick off at 7:30 with NFIB Small Business Optimism, which is expected to increase 20 basis points to 91.6. At 8:30 a.m., inflation and sales data will be released in the United States — economists forecast a 0.2 percent sequential PPI increase and for advance retail sales to advance 0.3 percent.