LONDON -- Markets look likely to open higher this Monday morning. At 7 a.m. EST, stock futures indicated an opening gain of 0.19% for the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEX: ^DJI) and a gain of 0.2% for the S&P 500 (INDEX: ^GSPC).
The Veteran's Day holiday means that today's economic calendar is empty, and both bond markets and banks are closed. Stock markets are open as usual, however, and they may take note of economic news from elsewhere in the world. China's exports expanded by 11.6% month on month in October, beating expectations of a 10% increase. On the downside was the increasing weakness of the Japanese economy, which contracted at an annualized rate of 3.5% over the last quarter. Further disappointing news came from India, where industrial production fell by 0.4% in September. It had gained 2.8% during the same period last year.
Despite the holiday, a number of companies are scheduled to report quarterly earnings today. Homebuilder DR Horton reported net income per share of $0.30, beating analysts' expectations of $0.27 per share. Beazer Homes also reported this morning, and although revenues rose by 11% in its fiscal fourth quarter, a worse-than-expected loss of $2.82 per share suggests that its stock could fall when markets open. Both companies have seen their share prices rise strongly this year as the housing market has shown signs of recovery. Other companies due to report today include Exide Technologies, Hologic, Jacobs Engineering Group, and Weatherford International.
European markets
Most European markets made modest gains this morning after the Greek parliament approved the country's 2013 budget in a vote last night. The approval was necessary to get the next slice of bailout money, but the timing of this is still to be agreed. Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras promised that the sacrifices would be "the last," so long as parliament allowed the government to implement all of the reforms. As of 7:45 a.m. EST, the DAX is up 0.4%, the CAC is up 0.01%, the FTSE MIB is up 0.21%, and the IBEX is down 0.8%. In London, the FTSE 100 (INDEX: ^FTSE) is up 0.4% as the positive export data from China offsets the weaker data from Japan and worries over Greece, leaving most stocks fairly flat.
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