Morning Wire -- US Stock-Index Futures Dropping

US index futures are lower this morning following an announcement from Spain that it was unilaterally raising its budget deficit target to 5.8% of GDP, much higher than the 4.4% that the country had agreed to with the EU. The dollar is also considerably stronger today. No major US economic data is expected today, so it looks likely to be a sort of slow trading day. In Europe, indexes are lower on the news from Spain. In Asia, markets closed higher today as Asian traders liked yesterday’s report on US unemployment claims and the results of the Spanish and Italian bond auctions in Europe.

At about 8:15 a.m. ET, Germany’s DAX is down -0.43% at 6,911.71 and France’s CAC 40 is down -0.10%, at 3,496.17. In London, the FTSE 100 is down -0.31%, at 5,912.64.

In Asia, the Hang Seng index closed up 0.81%, at 21,562.30 and the Nikkei index closed up 0.72%, at 9,777.03. The Shanghai exchange closed up 1.43%, at 2,460.69.

Dow futures are down -0.25%, at 12,941.00. The Nasdaq is down -0.28%, at 2,635.75 and the S&P is down -0.36%, at 1,369.50.

In the currency markets, the US dollar is stronger against the euro, the British pound, and the Japanese yen. The US dollar index is up 0.71% at 79.344.

In commodities, WTI and Brent crude are lower this morning, with WTI down -0.74% at $108.03/barrel and Brent is down -1.12% at $124.79/barrel. Gold is down -0.63% this morning, at $1,711.30/ounce.

Paul Ausick