Markets opened flat turned to a negative bias.

Headline News from Europe this morning.

@telegraph: “Spain’s economy is back in recession after shrinking in the first quarter of the year, the country’s central bank indicated, as German workers go on strike in protest over pay rises.”

“OECD tells eurozone ministers to set up the “mother of all firewalls” at meeting later this week, as Spain’s economy goes back into recession according to the country’s central bank.”

European markets are mixed. The DAX is higher by 0.63%, while the CAC 40 is leading the FTSE 100 lower. They are down 0.38% and 0.02% respectively. The Asian Markets are closed with the Hang Seng ending at 1.83%, Nikkei at 2.36 and Shanghai Composite at -0.15%.

WTI oil is at 107, Brent at 125, gold at 1693 and the Euro flat at 1.3300. The USD started out this morning at 78.93 rising to 79.30 and is currently at 79.25. The S&P 500 futures also started out high at 1419, fell to 1412 and was 1413 at the open.

The markets opened flat as expected and with a negative bias. The DOW opened at 13265 and is at 13237. The 500 opened at 1418 and is at 1417melting slowly downwards.

The volumes are mostly red, but very low. SSO has stayed flat (59.13) so I expect the markets will act in kind and reverse course shortly. SPY also started out high and is flat at 141.67

This morning the financial reporting didn’t make any waves in the markets as they stayed flat until the Richmond Manufacturing Index was announced and then stared to melt down.

Case Shiller Finds Home Prices Declined For 9th Consecutive Month In January

@dailyfx: “Consumer confidence (Mar) print 70.2 vs. 70.0 expected. Previous revised upwards to 71.6 from 70.8.

$USD: Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index (Mar) print 7 vs. 18 expected. Previous was 20.

“$USD: S&P/ case-shiller 20 city seasonally adjusted (mom) (Jan) print -0.04% vs. -0.30% expected. Previous revised to -0.47% from -0.50%.

$USD: S&P/case-shiller home price index (Jan) print 135.5 vs. 135.8 expected. Previous revised downwards to 136.6 from 136.71.

$USD: S&P/case-shiller composite-20 home prices (YoY) (Jan) falls 3.8% as expected. Previous revised from -4.0% to -4.1%.

Written by Gary