OREANDA-NEWS. February 10, 2012. The US indices closed slightly up on Thursday. S&P 500 Index added 0.15% while Russell was down by 0.44% with Technology (+0.97%) as the leaders and Healthcare (-0.44%) as the laggards. Put/call ratio went up to 1.35 and 90-110% skew inched up to 9.88%.

Pepsi was among the worst stocks while Apple and Akamai Tehnologies led the session.

Of 327 S&P 500 Index constituents the EPS of 228 and revenues of 183 companies beat expectations so far. In Europe 51 DJ Stoxx companies topped expectations while 57 missed estimates.

Initial jobless claims rose to 358K in February vs consensus forecast of 370K.

Asian markets were mostly down on Friday. Hang Seng lost 0.91%, Kospi – 0.93%, Japanese Nikkei lost 0.48%. S&P/ASX 200 was down by 0.88%. Chinese indices rose on average 0.3-0.4%. Trade surplus rose to USD 27.28 bn vs consensus forecast of 10.4 bn.

German CPI will be in focus today in Europe. In the US, Trade Balance, University of Michigan Consumer Confidence statistics are to be released. Bernanke is to deliver his housing speech in the late evening.

Earnings season will go on in the US with 5 S&P 500 companies and 29 DJ Stoxx companies to report.