Need To Know News

Equities finished the day mixed with Dow futures up 0.5% to 11406, S&P futures gaining 0.4% to 1274 and Nasdaq futures down 0.2% to 1915.

S&P futures had a roller coaster day but finished positive with one final rally at the end of the day. It challenged support at the 21-day moving average of 1275, but ended up closing just under it.

The S&P500 was led by the 3.6% jump in Energy stocks. Financial stocks were marginally lower despite Freddie plunging 22% and Fannie plunging 27%.

At 8:30am, Initial Jobless Claims are released, with a reading of 440k expected. July Leading Economic Indicators follows at 10am, and is expected to be down 0.2%. Also at 10, the Philly Fed Index comes out, with a consensus estimate of -12.6. At 10:35am, Natural Gas Storage data is released.

BoA: up 1%

Wells Fargo: up 1.5%

WaMu: down 7%

The S&P/TSX composite index jumped 154 points to 13,1218 at the open today, lifted by oil and commodity prices even as Financial continue to exert a drag, on the alarming prospect of US intervention on behalf of Fannie and Freddie.

The energy complex is on the rise, up 4.56 points, with Encana up 6.54%, Suncor up 4.09%. Meanwhile metals and mining jumped 22 points with Goldcorp up more than 4%, Barrick up 2.08%. However financials are still down o.66 points with Royal Bank and Bank of Montreal both down 0.6% and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce down 1.6%.

The index is also enjoying a boost from Potash Corp. up 1.7% and RIM up 1.3% following y/day’s announcement by the BlackBerry maker’s of the release of its new Bold smartphone.

European stocks made ground in early trading, clawing back some of yesterday’s losses.

Commodity-based stocks led the market higher, along with oil and metal prices, with Rio Tinto putting on 3.4% and BP 1.4%. The main index of top European shares gained 0.5% in early dealings.

Equities finished significantly lower for the second straight day with Dow futures down 1.3% to 11351, S&P futures falling 1.1% to 1268 and Nasdaq futures tumbling 1.3% to 1919.

In the afternoon, S&P futures made a double bottom around 1263, but still closed near their low. While Energy stocks in the S&P500 gained over 3%, 8 out of 10 sectors were negative. Financials lost 3%, led by Lehman plunging 13%.

The only data to be released tomorrow will be EIA Petroleum Inventories at 10:35am EDT.