An eerily quiet morning premarket Friday following what was another late-session rally yesterday. These end-of-session moves have become commonplace over the last two weeks. They helped the S&P 500 rally 2.5% last week and another 2.2% this week.We may need a repeat today given the lackadaisical atmosphere here at of the open. The only catalyst on the calendar is the quadruple-witching options expiration, which typically raises volume levels.
U.S. equity futures are fluctuating modestly lower ahead of the open. European trading has retreated from earlier highs but is still holding onto modest gains. The leader by a wide margin is Spain, where the IBEX has gained over 1%.
Asia was relatively quiet as well. The yen is advancing against the dollar at 90.65.
Meanwhile, the euro has gained over 4% off the lows of 1.1877 against the dollar on June 6 as sovereign debt fears ease.
A week's worth of weaker-than-expected economic data is a harbinger of the resilience of the U.S. economic recovery. Those concerns have manifested themselves in copper futures, a barometer of economic growth. Copper prices are paring gains in Asian and European trading. Crude oil is also notably weaker but still registering nearly a $2 gain for the week.
The opposite is true for gold, which has broken out to new all-time highs of $1,260.90 per ounce.
There is no economic data or earnings results out today.
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Shares of Walgreens (WAG) and CVS Caremark (CVS) both spiked over 5% premarket on news of an agreement wherein WAG will continue to participate in CVS' PBM retail network. The contract details were not disclosed. Separately, both Cargill and Campbell Soup (CPB) announced food items recalls due to processing problem today.After a raucous testimony in front of Congress, BP (BP) received more bad, but not unexpected, news today. Moody's downgrade the major to A2 from AA2. BP's 10-year bond was trading at 6.75% yesterday but has now backed up to 7.00%. Its 2-year went from 6.40% to 6.90% on the downgrade.
While the pace seems slow today, it is sure to pick up next week with the FOMC meeting and Group of 20 meeting.
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