By 0703 GMT, futures for Eurostoxx 50 STXEc1, Germany’s DAX FDXc1 and France’s CAC-40 FCEc1 dropped by 0.5-0.7 percent. In the US, futures are up with the Dow Jones +42 pts; S&P +4.2 pts and Nasdaq +9 pts.In early trade today, the European stock index futures fell pointing to a weaker start for equities after the U.S. Federal Reserve stated that it would let its special liquidity facilities expire by early next year. The benchmark Nikkei closed lower at 13.61 points to 10,163.80. The Topix edged down 0.2 percent to 896.28.

After December’s flash purchasing managers’ indices posted a new high, the Eurozone is on track for another quarter of growth. In December the composite index reached a 26-month high of 54.2 and is well above the critical 50 level. Last night the Federal Reserve heralded further signs of improvement to the US economy but voted to keep interest rates at 0.25 per cent. In the US, the Consumer Price Index rose 0.4 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis after an 0.3 percent gain in October. Data on Wednesday showed that housing starts rose to 574,000 units in November at the fastest rate since May, and building permits increased their fastest clip since November 2008. In November, US consumer prices rose 0.4 per cent on the previous month, taking the annual inflation rate to 1.8 per cent. Today, Greece took another hit after Standard & Poor’s downgraded the country’s long-term credit rating.

Due for release today is the GBP Retail Sales, GBP CBI Realized Sales, CAD Core CPI, USD Unemployment Claims and Philly Fed Manufacturing Index.

By Greg Secker