Earnings Season

Markets are trading with a mixed fashion today, early Wednesday. The broad-based selling effort dragged S&P 500 down to 1074.31, lowest level since October 13th. Participants of S&P 500 reacted by doubling their selling efforts after the Jobless Claims data came worse than expected. The higher consensus was 525K but the actual numbers came to 531K. Also, FHFA House Price Index showed a decline in home prices for single-family housing in August. The strengthening dollar also pressures the markets at this hour at the stock exchange.

In Great Britain, retail sales came out slightly off. Although there wasn't a decline in retail sales, the households were more cautious about spending money in August.

Meanwhile, crude oil is having a flat trading day today. It is now at $80.77 a barell, down 0.74%. Crude oil is trading higher than its October 2008 highs. Gold is also under selling pressure, trading at $1053.80 an ounce, moderatly down 0.93%.