#PreMarket Primer: Tuesday, January 14: Markets Slide, Google Acquires Nest Labs

The day was set to be relatively quiet as investors waited for key earnings reports to reach the market Tuesday morning, but by the end of the day, it was everything but.

Comments by Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart along with a Goldman Sachs note appeared to be the downside-catalyst Monday.

The Dow ended down about one percent at 16,257.94. The S&P lost 1.26 percent to close at 1,819.20, and the NASDAQ lost nearly 1.5 percent to close at 4,113.30.

U.S. markets are showing signs of recovery in premarket trading this morning. The Dow is up about 32 points while the S&P is up about three. The NASDAQ is up seven points in early trading.

Top Stories

• Google GOOG announced that it was acquiring Nest Labs for $3.2 billion.
• Charter Communications CHTR offered to buy larger rival Time Warner Cable TWC for $62.35 billion, $132.50 per share including debt.
• SodaStream SODA lost 25 percent Monday after the company disclosed that the holiday quarter will shapely miss Wall Street expectations.

Asian Markets

In the wake of a soft U.S. market, the Nikkei plunged while other Asian markets were mixed. The Nikkei was down more than three percent to end the day at 15,422.66.

The Shanghai composite was up 0.8 percent to close at 2026.84 and the Hang Seng, down about 0.4 percent to close at 22791.28

European Markets

European markets fell shapely at the open but have slowly made their way back to a less alarming loss. The FTSE and the CAC are each down about 0.4 percent while The DAX is down about 0.6 percent.

Commodities

Energy is higher while metals are lower. WTI is about 0.3 percent at $92.09 while Brent is up 0.2 percent at $106.93. Natural Gas is up nearly one percent at $4.315.

Gold is down about 0.2 percent at $1248.30 and Silver is down 0.5 percent at $20.28. Copper is unchanged.

Currencies

The dollar is showing weakness this morning. The euro is mostly flat against the dollar at 1.3675 while the pound is up fractionally against the U.S. currency. The dollar is 0.6 percent weaker against the yen at 103.60.

Pre-Market Movers

• Time Warner TWC is up 1.6 percent this morning following the Charter Communications buyout offer.
• Shares of Cliffs Natural Resources CLF are up about 3.5 percent possibly on a coverage initiation and United States Steel X is up 1.3 percent.

Earnings

• Xyratex XRTXreported an EPS loss of $0.03 per share on revenue of $185.3 million—a sharp miss.

Notable earnings this morning include:

• JP Morgan JPM is expected to report EPS of $1.33 on revenue of $23.82 billion.
• Wells Fargo WFC is forecast to report EPS of $0.98 per share on revenue of $20.67 billion

Economics

The day is full of economic reports including retail sales at 8:30 a.m. ET, business inventories at 10:00 a.m., and a four-week bill auction at 11:30. Fed governor Charles Plosser will speak at 12:45 p.m. and Richard Fisher will speak at 1:20 p.m.