January Jones
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Good morning. Here's what you need to know.
  • Asian markets were mostly higher in overnight trading. The Japanese Nikkei rose 0.4 percent and the Shanghai Composite rose 0.5 percent, officially entering a bull market. European markets are in the red, with Spain and Italy both down 0.6 percent. In the United States, futures point to a negative open.

  • The Federal Reserve begins its two-day FOMC monetary policy meeting today. With the bond market more skittish than usual as investors try to guess when the Fed will pull back the stimulus, the outcome of the meeting will be closely watched. The consensus estimate among economists is that the Fed will buy $1.14 trillion in bonds under its latest quantitative easing program before ending asset purchases sometime in the first quarter of 2014.

  • Ford reported earnings of $0.32 per share versus estimates of $0.25 and revenues of $36.5 billion versus estimates of $33.03 billion in Q4 2012. Pre-tax profits were the highest in a decade and were driven by a boost in Ford F-Series pickup truck sales in North America.

  • Global mining giant Anglo American announced it would take a $4 billion writedown on its iron ore mining project in Brazil after uncontrolled costs and delays upped the final bill on the project. Other mining companies are expected to announce similar writedowns as they deal with the same issues.

  • Japan small business confidence rose for the second straight month in January to an index level of 44.3 from last month's reading of 43.8. Manufacturing confidence rose to 41.1 from the last month's reading of 40.7 and nonmanufacturing confidence rose to 46.9 from 46.4 last month.

  • The Reserve Bank of India cut interest rates to 7.75 percent from 8 percent and lowered the cash reserve ratio to 4 percent from 4.25 percent in a bid to spur growth, saying it had policy space – "albeit limited" – to do so. The central bank also lowered its March inflation forecast to 6.8 percent from 7.5 percent. The country is facing declining growth rates and growing deficits.

  • The German GfK consumer sentiment index rose to 5.8 for February from January's 5.7 reading. The economic expectations sub-index rose to -11.3 from last month's reading of -17.9. On economic expectations, GfK said, "The downward trend of the indicator has come to an end. It is becoming ever more realistic to hope that the tide will soon turn."

  • After the closing bell Monday, Yahoo! reported earnings of $0.32 per share versus expectations of $0.28 and revenues of $1.22 billion versus estimates of $1.21 billion. Search revenues were up 14 percent from the previous year, but display advertising was down 5 percent.

  • At 9 AM ET, the S&P Case Shiller Home Price Index for November is released. Economists estimate the index rose 0.7 percent from the previous month and 5.5 percent from the previous year. The index is expected to clock in at 145.94.

  • At 10 AM, the Conference Board releases January Consumer Confidence data. The index is expected to fall to 64.0 from last month's 65.1 reading.