LONDON -- Following yesterday's strong rally on the back of positive housing data, attention this morning will turn to first-quarter GDP figures. Surveys at Reuters and Bloomberg suggest the value of goods and services produced in the U.S. may have improved at an annualised 2.5% -- below the 3% indicated three months ago.
Ahead of the GDP numbers, few traders were prepared to bet on the direction of the Dow Jones Industrial Average
Among individual stocks, Amazon.com
Meanwhile, Starbucks
Other stocks that could be active at today's open include Ford Motor
Over in Europe, the markets opened weaker today in response to Standard & Poor's decision to cut Spain's credit rating for the second time this year. The ratings agency lowered the country's credit status from "A" to "BBB+," and Madrid-traded stocks initially fell by more than 2%.
However, the early losses were mostly erased, with Spain and most other European bourses trading flat at lunchtime. News from Italy's month-end bond auction, set for later today, may cause fresh volatility.
In the UK, corporate results from the media sector helped the benchmark FTSE 100
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