10 Things You Need To Know Before The Opening Bell

Mamta Badkar

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

• Asian markets were up in overnight trading with the Nikkei rising 0.96 percent. Europe is sharply lower on eurozone PMI data and skepticism over the Greek deal, and U.S. futures are moderately lower.

• Eurozone composite PMI which measures manufacturing and services fell to 49.7 in February, from 50.4 the previous month. German PMI declined to 50.1 in February, down from 51 the previous month. French manufacturing PMI rose to 50.2 this month, from 48.5 in January.

• Chinese PMI came in at 49.7 in February according to a preliminary reading from HSBC Holdings Plc, compared with 48.8 the previous month. This however signaled a fourth straight month of contraction in manufacturing.

• Fitch cut Greece's long-term ratings to C from CCC. The ratings agency said Greece is highly likely to default in the near-term. This comes after talks that default risk is not off the table, despite Athens securing its second bailout yesterday. 

• Wells Fargo is buying BNP Paribas' North American energy lending unit. This includes $9.5 billion of loans from BNP, though only $3.9 billion of loans are drawn. Meanwhile, Citigroup is facing a multibillion dollar writedown on its investment in the Morgan Stanley Smith Barney brokerage, the WSJ reported.

• In earnings news, Toll Brothers reported Q1 net loss of $0.02 per share, on revenue of $322 million, missing expectations. Chesapeake Energy reported Q4 earnings of $0.63 per share, on revenue of $2.73 billion. HP is expected to report earnings of $0.87 per share today.

• President Obama will ask Congress to cut the corporate tax rate to 28 percent, down from 35 percent. Manufacturers would be given preference and would have a maximum effective rate of 25 percent.

• Existing home sales for January will be released at 10 AM ET. Consensus is for a rise in existing home sales to a 4.690 million unit rate. 

• Euro area industrial orders jumped 1.9 percent month-over-month in December beating expectations. This comes after a 1.1 percent decline the previous month. Orders of intermediate goods climbed 1.5 percent, while capital goods orders rose 4.2 percent.

• France's harmonized index of consumer prices or HICP, rose 2.6 percent from a year ago, staying near a three-year high in January. CPI however decreased 0.4 percent month-over-month.