OREANDA-NEWS. January 20, 2012. The US indices rose on Thursday as European debt tensions eased. S&P 500 Index added 0.49% while Russell was up by 0.4% with Consumer Discretionary (Internet, Media and Hotels), Industrials as the leaders (+0.94%) and Utilities (-0.76%) as the laggards.

CPI inched was unchanged in December vs consensus forecast of a 0.1% decline. Annually CPI rose by 3.0%, meeting consensus forecast.

New Home Sales fell by 4.7% to 657K vs consensus forecast of a 0.7% decline. Initial jobless claims declined sharply in a week, down to 352K.

Philadelphia Manufacturing Index declined to 7.3 vs consensus forecast of 10.3.

Asian indices rose on Friday. Hang Seng added 0.6%. Japanese Nikkei was up by 1.47%, Korean Kospi - by 1.82%. S&P/ASX 200 added 0.59%. Shanghai stock indices rose on average 1%.

HSBC Manufacturing Index rose to 48.8 in January, indicating that manufacturing still slows in China.

US Home Sales for December will be in focus today. Earnings season will go on with Parker Hannifin, Schlumberger, General Electric reports in focus.