After six trading sessions of flatlining, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
Merkel's comments led to broad-based gains in European stocks late yesterday, a trend they continued today, with all major indexes trading higher as of this writing -- this despite opposing comments out of Finland, where foreign minister Erkki Tuomioja was quoted in the Daily Telegraph as saying "it is only a matter of time" before the eurozone breaks up. Of course, when you look at each country's relative importance to the eurozone, with Germany's GDP more than 10 times that of Finland, it's easy to understand why investors are paying more attention to Merkel today.
Turning back to U.S. stocks, futures markets were relatively flat as of this writing, offering little evidence of the direction today's trading will take. That might change, however, after a reading on consumer sentiment is released shortly after the opening bell. Every gauge of the consumer's psyche is important, given that consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of GDP.
As is the norm for Fridays, it's a slow day for earnings reports, with the only one coming from S&P 500 component The J. M. Smucker Company
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