OREANDA-NEWS. February 20, 2012. The US indices closed mixed on Friday. S&P 500 Index added 0.23% while Russell was down by 0.15% with Consumer Discretionary (+0.36%) as the leaders and Healthcare (-0.37%) as the laggards. Put/call ratio went down to 1.11 and 90-110% skew went up to 11.03%.

CPI rose 2.9% vs consensus forecast of a 2.8% rise while the core CPI was up 2.3%, indicating that inflationary pressure is far from strong.

Empire State Manufacturing Index rose by 0.4% in January vs consensus forecast of 0.5%.

Of 383 S&P 500 Index constituents the EPS of 268 and revenues of 218 companies beat expectations so far. In Europe 75 DJ Stoxx 600 companies topped expectations while 84 missed estimates.

China Central Bank decision to cut rates and the expectation of the Euroleaders to approve the emergency package for Greece pushed higher risk appetite in Asia.

Hang Seng added 0.68%, Kospi – went up by 0.28%, Japanese Nikkei rose by 1.08%. S&P/ASX 200 added 1.44%. Chinese indices rose on average by 0.75.

No significant economic reports are to be released in the US and Europe. The US exchanges will be closed for the observance of the President Day.

Earnings season will go on in the US with 2 S&P 500 companies and 4 DJ Stoxx companies to report.