Benzinga's Market Primer- Thursday, August 16

The U.S. markets are all trading slightly higher Thursday morning. Treasury yields are trading at a three-month high. Facebook share lockup ends today, set to release 271 million shares. Wal-Mart was trading down 3 percent on a disappointing second quarter earnings report. News Around the World Asia/Pacific Rim Markets Chinese stocks took a hit Thursday as a report showed direct foreign investment slowed to a two-year low. The 8.7 percent drop from last year's same period is a concern to Beijing's commerce department. Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose to a six-week high Thursday. The market rallied on comments by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who indicated slowing inflation will allow more room to adjust monetary policy. The Japanese Yen hit a one-month low against the dollar on the carry trade based on a higher U.S. securities yield.

• Shanghai closed at 2,112,20 lost 6.75 points or 0.32 percent
• Hang Seng Index closed at 19,962.95 down 89.24 points or 0.45 percent
• Nikkei 225 closed at 9,092.76 a gain of 167 points or 1.88 percent
• TSEC closed at 7,490.21 a gain of 22.47 points or 0.30 percent

Europe/UK Markets European markets are little changed in lackluster trading at mid-day. The inflation rate in the Eurozone remained at 2.4 percent from a year ago giving a lift to German 10 year Bund. The August holiday season appears to be in high gear today as market eyes are focused on U.S. data coming out later. London's FTSE 100 was trading fractionally lower during a quiet session. The UK retail sales number showed an unexpected rise as analysts were looking for 0.1 percent uptick and the actual number was up 0.3 percent. The Olympics were credited for the gain.

• German DAX trading 6,943.90 down 2.90 points or 0.04 percent
• Franch CAC 40 trading at 3,447.42 down 1.78 points or 0.05 percent
• UK's FTSE 100 trading at 5,821.32 down 11.72 or 0.20 percent
• EURO STOXX 50 was trading 2,429.02 down 1.42 or 0.03 percent

Commodities Summary

• Brent Oil 116.32 up 6 cents
• WTI Crude Oil 94.23 down -9 cents
• Gold $1605.10 down $1.05
• Silver $27.80 down 5 cents
• Copper $3.349 down 0.005 cents

Currency Rates

• EUR/USD 1.2266 down 0.0023 (-19%)
• USD/JPY 79.230 up 0.3300 (+0.42%)
• GBP/USD 1.5645 down 0.0042 (-0.27)
• USD/CAD 0.9899 up 0.0012 (+0.12%)
• AUD/USD 1.0794 down 0.0029 (-0.28%)

U.S. Economics Report

• 8:30 Initial Claims 8/11 consensus 368K last 360K
• 8:30 Continuing Claims 8/04 consensus 3330K last 3332K
• 8:30 Housing Starts July consensus 763K last 760K
• 8:30 Building Permits July consensus 770K last 755K
• 10:00 Philly Fed Index August consensus -5.0 last -12.9

Before the Bell

• Sears SHLD
• Wal-Mart WMT
• Gamestop GME
• Ross Stores ROST