24/7 Wall St.

The U.S. markets are open today, December 26, 2012. This likely will be another very low volume day as European markets are closed. The lack of resolution to the coming fiscal cliff has investors bracing for a recession if no last minute effort is reached between Thursday and January 1. So far we have S&P futures up 2.50 and DJIA futures up about 20 points. President Obama has canceled his Christmas vacation early to go back to Washington D.C. and resume talks about the fiscal cliff.

Most European markets are closed for Boxing Day, and the second day of Christmas, as follows: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Many Eastern European markets were left off. Other markets were closed today as well. In Asia and the Pacific, the markets in Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong were closed.

To show what has happened since the breakdown of the talks around the fiscal cliff, the drop in the DJIA has been as follows: 13,311.72 on December 20; 13,190.84 on December 21; and 13,138.93 on December 24.

At 9:00 a.m. EST, we will see data on the S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index, and at 10:00 a.m. EST we will see data from the Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index.

Here is a link to our Media Digest showing all the top headlines from the likes of the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, New York Times and the Financial Times.

JON C. OGG