10 Things You Need To Know Before The Opening Bell

Eric Platt

 Sep. 20, 2012

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

• Markets in Asia sold off in overnight trade, with Japan's Nikkei off 1.6 percent. Shares in Europe are lower and U.S. futures point to a negative open.

• Manufacturing in China continued to contract in September, new data out of HSBC shows. The flash Chinese PMI reading improved 20 basis points to 47.8, below the neutral reading of 50. 

• Japan's trade deficit widened to ¥754.1 billion, or $9.62 billion, as exports declined 5.8 percent from the year-ago period. The reading was better than expectations for a ¥829.3 billion deficit.

• Spain successfully sold €4.8 billion worth of three- and ten-year bonds this morning, exceeding targets by €300 million. Yields on the ten-year fell to 5.666 percent from 6.647 percent a month earlier. Demand also improved, with a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.85 during the auction.

• Eurozone PMI fell to a 39 month low as the region's service sector weighed on the economy. Flash composite PMI fell to 45.9 from 46.3 a month earlier. Meanwhile, the manufacturing PMI sub-index for the eurozone improved to 46.0, a six month high.

• U.K. retail sales declined 0.2 percent in August, better than a 0.3 percent drop economists were forecasting. The fall was attributed to the Olympics, which distracted consumers from online shopping.

• Adobe missed earnings expectations yesterday and set guidance for the fourth quarter that was sharply below analyst forecasts. The company earned $0.58 a share in its third quarter and projected it would earn $0.53 to $0.58 in the fourth quarter. Analysts were looking for guidance of $0.67 a share. 

• Nike announced an $8 billion share buyback program overnight. The new buybacks come on top of $5 billion worth of shares the company will re-purchase through the second quarter of 2013.

• Bank of America is speeding up job cuts as it looks to cut its workforce by 16,000 employees by year's end, the Wall Street Journal's Dan Fitzpatrick reports. The company expects to have smaller mortgage operations and fewer branches. 

• U.S. economic announcements kick off at 8:30 a.m. with initial jobless claims. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg forecast claims fell to 375,000. At 10:00 a.m. the Philadelphia Federal Reserve will release its regional manufacturing report, with economists looking for an improvement to -4.5.