10 Things You Need To Know Before The Opening Bell

Eric Platt

 Jul. 24, 2012

Sang Tan - WPA Pool/Getty Images

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

• Markets in Asia moved little in overnight trade, with Japan's Nikkei off 0.2 percent. Shares in Europe are lower while U.S. futures point to a negative open. 

• Chinese flash PMI jumped to a five-month high in July, climbing to 49.5 from 48.1 a month earlier. This follows two interest rate cuts and a push from leaders to stabilize economic growth. 

• Manufacturing in the eurozone continued to weaken in July. The flash Eurozone PMI reading declined to 46.4 in July, the sixth consecutive month below 50. Germany faced significant pressures, as manufacturing activity hit a 37-month low.
• Moody's lowered the core Eurozone outlook to negative. The ratings agency moved three of Europe's strongest AAA countries — Germany, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg — to negative as it sees Greek costs weighing on the region. Moody's affirmed Finland's stable outlook.

• Spanish yields hit a new record this morning, after the country sold more than €3.05 billion of three- and six-month Treasury bills to strong demand. Nonetheless yields on the ten-year traded as high as 7.607 percent. 

• Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson were charged with hacking into voice mail systems to get stories. The two were among eight News Corp. journalists charged this morning. 

• Spikes in trading in late January and February may have masked the real cost J.P. Morgan's Chief Investment Office took on, Bloomberg's Mary Childs and Shannon Harrington report. The trades came right before end-of-month internal audits to verify prices.

• U.S. economic announcements kick off at 9:00 a.m. with Flash PMI, estimated at 52. The Richmond Fed's manufacturing report and U.S. home prices follow at 10:00 a.m. The Richmond Fed business conditions index is expected to improve two points to -1, while home prices increase 0.4 percent in May.

• Earnings on tap today include AT&T, Lockheed Martin, and Du Pont. Already, Du Pont and AT&T announced better than expected earnings, even as revenue fell slightly below analyst forecasts at $11.0 and $31.6 billion, respectively. Still to come: Lockheed Martin, which is expected to report earnings of $1.91 per share. 

• Obama campaign ads hammering Romney appear to be having a significant effect on voters, a new poll out of Reuters shows. Thirty-six percent of registered voters viewed Romney less favorably after seeing the ads targeting his U.S. jobs record.