10 Things You Need To Know Before The Opening Bell

Mamta Badkar

 Oct. 1, 2012

Jemal Countess/Getty Images

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

• Asian markets were mixed in overnight trading. The Shanghai Composite is closed for the week because of the Golden Week holiday. The Nikkei was down 0.83 percent because of weak economic data and profit warnings. Europe is higher and U.S. futures are modestly higher as well.

• Today is global PMI day and eurozone manufacturing is still at contractionary levels. Italian, German and Greek PMI rose in September but were below 50, but French manufacturing fell to 42.7. Irish PMI however climbed to 51.8.

• Chinese manufacturing climbed to 49.8 in September, but stayed below the contractionary level of 50. The official number contracted for the second straight month. 

• Talks have resumed in Athens between the Greek government and the troika, the ECB, EU and IMF. The troika had given the government a week to agree on a €13.5 billion austerity package, before it received its next tranche of loans. 

• South Korea the global economic canary in the coal mine saw better than expected export data. Exports fell 1.8 percent in September, against expectations of a 5.5 percent decline.

• Eurozone unemployment reached a record high of 11.4 percent in August. Nearly 18.2 million people in the eurozone were unemployed as of August. 

• The ISM manufacturing index for September and construction spending for August will be out at 10 a.m. ET. Consensus is for the ISM manufacturing index to rise to 49.7, and for a 0.6 percent month-over-month increase in construction spending. 

• India's trade deficit widened to $15.6 billion in August. Exports fell 9.7 percent on the year, while imports fell 5.08 percent. India wants to increase exports by 20 percent this year.

• Mining giant Xstrata's board has recommended that shareholders accept a $33 billion bid from Glencore.

• At 12:30 PM ET, Ben Bernanke will deliver a speech called "Five Questions about the Federal Reserve and Monetary Policy" at the Economic Club Of Indiana.