If investors were looking for a continuation of winning sessions, the futures are not helping matters. Chinese data coupled with bank earnings are helping drive the market lower in pre-market trading. Dow futures are down 63 points to 12,887. Nasdaq and S&P futures are also negative, down 12 and 7 respectively.
GDP numbers out of China overnight saw the country growing at a 8.1% pace. This was below the consensus expectation of 8.3%. This marked the slowest pace in growth in 11 quarters for the country.
The numbers out of China had a cascading effect on European markets. The EU also had to digest the news that Spain sharply increased its borrowing from the ECB in March.
In earnings news, the banking sector kicked it off this morning with beats. Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) reported better than expected earnings. While JPMorgan and Chase (NYSE:JPM) saw profits decline, it was not as bad as predicted by many analysts. This was due in part to their lending arm. [Read more...]