OREANDA-NEWS. March 15, 2012. The US indices closed flat on Wednesday. S&P 500 Index lost 0.12% while Russell was up by 0.94% with Technology (+0.63%) as leaders, Utilities (-1.42%) as the laggards. Put/call ratio went down to 1.09 and 90-110% skew fell to 10.18. Advance/Decline ratio was at 160/336.

Import Prices rose by 0.4%  vs consensus forecast of a 0.6% rise.

Of 289 DJ Stoxx 600 companies 138 topped expectations while 135 missed estimates as earnings season was going to its final. Still revision momentum is going upwards both in Europe and the US.

Asian indices mostly fell on Thursday. Hang Seng lost 0.47%, Japanese Nikkei was up by 0.64%. S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.22%. Chinese indices were down on average by 1.0-1.2%.

Employment statistics for Europe, weekly initial jobless claims for the US will be in focus today.

Earnings season will go on in the US with 1 S&P 500 company and 6 DJ Stoxx 600 companies to report.