OREANDA-NEWS. February 7, 2012. The US indices closed flat on Monday – negative Greek news were unable to derail the optimism. S&P 500 Index lost 0.04% while Russell was down by 0.33% with Financials (-0.48%) as the laggards and Oil & Gas (+1.11%) as the leaders. Brent-WTI spread rose as geopolitical tensions increased at the Middle East.

Of 275 S&P 500 Index constituents the EPS of 185 and revenues of 152 companies beat expectations so far.

Asian markets mostly were flat on Tuesday. Hang Seng lost 0.03%, Kospi was up by 0.43%, Japanese Nikkei lost 0.13%. S&P/ASX 200 declined by 0.51%. Chinese indices were down by 0.8 – 1.64% as investors were disappointed by the liquidity absorbtion operations by the Bank of China.

German Industrial data and US Consumer credit are expected to be released today. Bernanke speech to Congress will also attract the investor’s attention.

Earnings season will go on in the US with 12 S&P 500 companies and 16 DJ stoxx companies to report.