OREANDA-NEWS. January 16, 2012. The US indices inched down on Friday as S&P cut France rating to AA+ from AAA on credit concerns. However, much of the sell-off vanished after Merkel said that the AAA rating was not necessary for the EFSF. S&P 500 Index lost 0.49% while Russell was down by 0.82% with Financials, Basic Materials (-0.97%) as the laggards.

Import prices fell 0.1% m/m and rose 8.5% y/y, meeting consensus forecast. The University of Michigan Consumer Confidence Index inched up to 74 vs consensus forecast of 71.5.

Asian indices mostly fell on Monday. Hang Seng lost 1.01%. Japanese Nikkei was down by 1.43%, Korean Kospi - by 0.87%. S&P/ASX 200 lost 1.16%. Shanghai stock indices lost on average 0.7% as economic concerns were rising before the quarterly GDP release.

No significant economic releases are expected in Europe, US today. ECB’s Draghi speech will be in focus.