Morning Briefing 1-16-2015 U.S. stock futures are falling and European stocks traded lower after markets remained surprised by the Swiss National Banks move to abandon its efforts to keep its currency artificially cheap. SP futs -11, dow futs -87. Asian shares ended Fridays session with losses. The economic calendar in the U.S. on Friday includes the Consumer Price Index for December at 8:30 a.m. EST, industrial production and capacity utilization for December at 9:15 a.m., and the University of Michigan Sentiment Index for January at 9:55 a.m. U.S. stocks on Thursday fell and the S&P 500 closed lower for a fifth straight session after bank earnings disappointed, a rally in crude oil vanished and the Swiss National Bank unsettled global markets by scrapping its four-year-old cap on its currency. The S&P 500 fell 0.92%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.61% and the Nasdaqslipped 1.48%. The tax deal that Amazon (AMZN) signed with Luxembourg may be illegal, according to the European Union. The EU opened an investigation into Amazon in October and on Friday gave a preliminary assessment of its concerns with the online retailers dealings. Amazon registers its profits from across the EU at its unit in Luxembourg. The companys taxable profits in Luxembourg are further reduced by making royalty payments to another Luxembourg-based Amazon entity that is not subject to corporate taxation, The Associated Press reported. The result is that not only does Amazon pay little tax in many EU countries where it operates, but also that its effective tax rate in Luxembourg is particularly low. The EU Commission said Friday that it is worried this arrangement could grant an economic advantage to Amazon compared with other companies. Goldman Sachs (GS) is expected by analysts to report on Friday fourth-quarter profit of $4.32 a share on revenue of $7.64 billion. Intels (INTC) fourth-quarter earnings beat expectations, thanks to strong results from its Data Center Group, but first-quarter guidance was below estimates. For the first quarter of 2015, the worlds largest chip maker expects revenue of between $13.2 billion and $14.2 billion, with gross margins at 60%, plus or minus a couple of percentage points. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect Intel to generate $13.77 billion in first-quarter revenue and gross margins of 61.2%. Apple (AAPL) , Google (GOOG) , Intel and Adobe (ADBE) have agreed to pay $415 million in a second attempt to resolve a class-action lawsuit alleging they formed an illegal cartel to prevent their workers from leaving for better-paying jobs. The settlement filed Thursday in a San Jose federal court revises a $324.5 million agreement that U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh rejected as inadequate five months ago. Koh indicated that she believed the roughly 64,000 workers in the case should be paid at least $380 million, including attorney fees. The lawsuit, filed in 2011, sought $3 billion in damages that could have been tripled under U.S. antitrust law. Attorneys for the workers decided to settle after concluding it would have been difficult to prove the alleged conspiracy to a jury. If Koh approves the latest settlement, it would avoid a trial over claims the tech companies agreed not to recruit each others employees from 2005 to 2009.
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 19:27:06 +0000
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