OREANDA-NEWS. February 15, 2012. The US indices closed slightly up on Monday. S&P 500 Index added 0.68% while Russell was down by 1.41% with Industrials (+1.17%) as the leaders and Financials (-1.05%) as the laggards. Put/call ratio went up to 1.48 and 90-110% skew went down to 10.65%.

Of 333 S&P 500 Index constituents the EPS of 233 and revenues of 185 companies beat expectations so far. In Europe 58 DJ Stoxx 600 companies topped expectations while 66 missed estimates.

Moody’s decision to downgrade 6 Eurozone sovereign ratings hardly affected Asian markets. Hang Seng added 0.05%, Kospi – lost 0.15%, Japanese Nikkei added 0.59%. S&P/ASX 200 was down by 0.99%. Chinese indices were mixed as central bank official said Chinese government is unlikely to loosen credit this year.

UK CPI, ZEW economic activity indices for Germany, US Import Prices and Retail Sales for January are expected to be released today. The Fed’s Fisher is to speak on monetary policy issues.

Earnings season will go on in the US with 11 S&P 500 companies and 9 DJ Stoxx companies to report.