10 Things You Need To Know Before The Opening Bell

Matthew Boesler

 Oct. 11, 2012

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

• Asian markets fell in overnight trading with the Nikkei posting a 0.6 percent decline and the Shanghai composite down 0.8 percent. European markets are mostly higher this morning, save for Spain. S&P 500 futures are up 5 points and Dow futures are up 40 points.

• S&P downgraded Spain to BBB- from BBB+ after U.S. markets closed Wednesday, citing increased domestic political uncertainty and policy uncertainty at the euro-area level. 

• The Chinese yuan rose to its highest level against the U.S. dollar in 19 years, breaking 6.28 per dollar, after the central bank raised the currency’s fixing by 0.09 percentage points – the most in seven weeks.

• Greece's unemployment rate jumped to 25.1 percent in July from 24.8 percent in June. Youth unemployment also remained elevated at 54.2 percent in July.

• Yields on shorter maturity Italian bonds rose at an auction today to 2.86 percent from 1.75 percent at the last auction on September 15, but demand also came in stronger. The bid-to-cover ratio was 1.67, up from 1.49 in September.

• The BAE-EADS merger fell apart due for political reasons when German chancellor Angela Merkel called French president Francois Hollande and said that the deal was off. The merger of the two companies would have created the world's largest defense contractor.

• IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde came out against austerity at the IMF's annual meeting in Tokyo today, saying budget deficit targets in Europe didn't make sense if growth failed to materialize. Lagarde also said Greece should get more time to meet its bailout commitments.

• Striking gold miners in South Africa rejected a "final offer" from employers in wage negotiations, suggesting that the two sides are still far from an agreement that would end the strikes.

• Chinese PC manufacturer Lenovo overtook HP as the world's largest PC manufacturer for the first time in Lenovo's history. Research firm Gartner said that Lenovo has managed such impressive gains partly through aggressive pricing.

• In the United States, initial jobless claims and trade balance data will be released at 8:30 AM ET. Consensus forecasts are for 370K claims and a $44 billion trade deficit.