OREANDA-NEWS. February 13, 2012. The US indices closed slightly up on Thursday. S&P 500 Index lost 0.69% while Russell was down by 1.41% with Basic Materials (-1.75%) as the leaders and Oil & Gas (-1.05%) as the laggards. Put/call ratio went up to 1.41 and 90-110% skew jumped to 10.94%.

Of 327 S&P 500 Index constituents the EPS of 331 and revenues of 185 companies beat expectations so far. In Europe 56 DJ Stoxx companies topped expectations while 64 missed estimates.

The University of Michigan Consumer Confidence Index declined to 72.5 vs consensus forecast of 74.8.

Asian markets mostly rose on Monday. Hang Seng added 0.84%, Kospi – added 0.84%, Japanese Nikkei added 0.65%. S&P/ASX 200 was up by 0.94%. Chinese indices were down on average 0.3-0.4% as easening prospects were fading.

No significant economic reports are expected to be released today.

Earnings season will go on in the US with 2 S&P 500 companies and 7 DJ Stoxx companies to report.