U.S. Opening Comments

Asian Equities sold off overnight after the Dow failed to hold TARP payback gains in late trade. U.K. Equities sold off in response to worse than expected Retail Sales data (-0.6% month on month) and the higher public borrowings on recored.

U.S. Equities are trading either side of unchanged at this writing, awaiting Initial Jobless Claims at 8:30am est. Jobless Claims are expected to come in at 594k after 601k in the previous week. Philly Fed, at 10am, is expected to show some improvement as are Leading Economic Indicators - also at 10am est.

Treasury Bond Futures are off slightly culminating in a 5 tick loss at the 10 and 30yr as the market awaits the amounts of the 2, 5 and 7yr auctions scheduled for next week. Treasury Secretary Geithner is on the Hill today at 9:30 and 1:30 this afternoon. Geithner is scheduled to answer questions regarding regulatory changes at both the House and Senate.

The dollar is putting in a mixed performance this morning, weakening against the JPY and EUR but showing good gains against GBP after poor U.K. data.

Oil and products continued to post gains overnight but are coming in ahead of the NY Open. Overall gains in Oil are of course pinned to hopes a recovery is taking root.

Gold is about $2 higher at this writing but volatile Copper is down amid concerns China has stopped stockpiling the industrial metal.