January 14, 2013-Stocks Continue to Seek Direction at Current Highs

Wall Street sentiment is still vacillating, as reflected by the U.S. index futures, which point to a mixed opening on Monday. Earlier in the global trading day, Asian stocks got a boost from comments from a Chinese official regarding allowing foreign buying in equities. Despite a weak industrial output data from the eurozone, European stocks are also higher. With little domestic earnings and economic news to digest, traders may prefer to stay on the sidelines ahead of the week's earnings flow and a host of market moving economic data. The Dow futures are adding 5 points and the S&P 500 futures are moving up 1.40 points, while the Nasdaq 100 futures are retreating 8.50 points. U.S. stocks extended their gains in the week ended January 11th, although the optimism moderated from a week-ago. Earnings optimism kept the momentum going despite the encircling economic uncertainties. Several key economic reports are due in the unfolding week, lending additional clarity to the economic outlook. The spotlight is likely to be on the Commerce Department's retail sales report for December, the results of regional manufacturing surveys for January by the New York and the Philadelphia Federal Reserve, the Commerce Department housing starts report for December, the Federal Reserve's industrial production report for December and the results of the homebuilder sentiment survey by the National Association of Home Builders.