10 Things You Need To Know Before The Opening Bell

Mamta Badkar Good morning.

Here's what you need to know.

 Asian markets were mixed in overnight trading with Shanghai down 0.73 percent on Chinese growth concerns.

Europe is mixed and U.S. futures are moderately higher. Eurozone employment fell 0.2 percent in the fourth quarter, from the previous quarter.

 The sharpest decline in employment was seen in construction, where payrolls fell 1.5 percent.

Germany, Finland and Austria were the only countries to show employment gains in the quarter.


The Hellenic Statistical Authority said Greece's jobless rate rose to 20.7 percent in the fourth quarter, from 14.2 percent in Q4 2010. 54.6 percent have been looking for employment for over a year.

 Spain's treasury sold €3 billion of bonds at the middle of its target range, and borrowing costs were lower as expected.

The Treasury sold €1 billion of a bond maturing Jan. 31, 2015, €976 million of a 2016 bond, and €1.03 billion of a bond maturing in 2018.

 Meanwhile, Spanish home prices fell 11.2 percent in the fourth quarter from a year ago.

 JP Morgan's Adrian Mowat said China is in a hard landing. Mowat pointed to weak economic data and said people should be concerned by China's property market.

6 top economists answer: Is China in a hard landing?

 Initial jobless claims beat expectations falling to 351K, while the Empire State manufacturing survey beat expectations rising to 20.2 in March. Cisco systems is in a pact to acquire NDS, which develops software for multi-channel television networks, for $5 billion including debt. India's central bank left its interest rates unchanged after inflation ticked higher.

The central bank attributed the decision to high inflation, fiscal deficit, rupee depreciation and high oil prices.

 February PPI climbed 0.4 percent month-over-month. The Philly Fed survey for March will be released at 10 a.m. ET. Expectations are for a rise in the general business conditions index to 11.5.

Fitch revised UK's outlook to negative late yesterday but maintained its AAA credit rating. Fitch attributed the revision to the limited fiscal space to absorb adverse economic shocks and a potentially weaker recovery than is currently expected.