10 Things You Need To Know Before The Opening Bell

Mamta Badkar

 Mar. 12, 2013

REUTERS/Henry Romero

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

• Asian markets sold off in overnight trading with the Shanghai Composite down 1.04 percent, falling for the fourth straight day. Europe is mixed and U.S. futures are modestly lower.

• UK industrial production fell 1.2 percent on the month in January, missing expectations of a 0.1 percent increase. Manufacturing fell 1.5 percent. Meanwhile, UK home prices fell to -6 in February from -4 the previous month, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

• Spanish borrowing costs fell at its latest Treasury auction. Spain sold €5.83 billion of six and 12-month notes, at an average yield of 0.794 percent and 1.363 percent respectively. The sale beat the upper target of €5.5 billion. Meanwhile, Italian borrowing costs were up at its €7.75 billion auction of 12-month bonds, the first since its downgrade.

• 115 Cardinals will begin voting for a new Pope at the Sistine Chapel this afternoon. This comes at a time when there have been differences between Cardinals that work outside Rome and those inside the Vatican. Italy's Angelo Scola and Brazil's Odilo Scherer are said to be favorites, according to Reuters. 

• At 10 a.m. ET, Paul Ryan will unveil his plan to balance the U.S. budget by 2013. Ryan's “The Path to Prosperity: A Responsible, balanced budget,” seeks to do so with $4.6 trillion in spending cuts.

• The Treasury Budget for February is out at 2 p.m. ET. Economists polled by Bloomberg are looking for deficit of $205.0 billion. 

• Costco's earnings were up 39 percent in the second quarter, and same store sales were up 5 percent. The retailer reported earnings of $1.24 per share, on revenue of $24.86 billion.

• Blackberry, formerly known as Research in Motion, saw its shares surge 14 percent on Monday, after reports that it could be acquired by Lenovo. Share prices were also driven by news that the Blackberry Z10 smartphone would be on sale in the U.S. on March 22.

• Indian industrial production was up 2.4 percent on the year, beating expectations of a 1.3 percent rise. Meanwhile consumer prices are up almost 11 percent year-over-year in February. 

• German inflation eased to 1.8 percent in February from 1.9 percent the previous month.