OREANDA-NEWS. March 14, 2012. The US indices closed flat on Monday. S&P 500 Index added 1.81% while Russell was up by 2.08% with Financials (+3.91%) Industrials (+2.67%) as the laggards. Put/call ratio went down to 1.1 and 90-110% skew fell to 10.25. Advance/Decline ratio was at 474/25.

Retail Sales rose 1.1% and 0.6%, excluding auto & gas components (consensus 0.5%), indicating that consumer activity was high in February.

Fed meeting brought no surprise, with economic assessment lifted and no hints for further monetary easing. Banking system stress-tests release inched Financials higher.

Of 284 DJ Stoxx 600 companies 134 topped expectations while 134 missed estimates as earnings season was going to its final. Still revision momentum is going upwards both in Europe and the US.

Asian indices supported US rally.

Hang Seng rose by 1.09%, Japanese Nikkei was up by 1.97%. S&P/ASX 200 rose by 0.93%. Chinese indices closed higher by 0.3-0.6%.

CPI index for Europe, US Import Prices, Bernanke speech will be in focus today.

Earnings season will go on in the US with 1 S&P 500 company and 8 DJ Stoxx 600 companies to report.