Dubai & Holiday Retail Sales

Good morning. Futures are slightly positive as Wall Street searches for direction on this final trading day of November. Much like on Friday, Dubai and holiday retail sales are in the spotlight and there are mixed reports on both. The dollar is also trading lower against a basket of foreign currencies and that has helped the premarket futures.

On the Dubai situation, according to WSJ, the United Arab Emirates central bank said Sunday it would make fresh funding available to local banks if needed, but didn't offer specific support to Dubai, raising worries of a rift between the struggling city-state and the U.A.E.'s federal government. Meanwhile, a Reuters article said that a government official from Dubai said that the Dubai government will not guarantee Dubai World's debts, such that creditors will be affected in the short term. This was in contrast to reports over the weekend the seemed to guarantee full government support.

As for the holiday shopping, traders are expecting to receive a lot more data today and throughout the week but the preliminary read is that while more shoppers hit stores, they spent less than last year. A number of retailers are out with their own perspectives including Amazon and eBay and we're going to hear much more in the week to come.

In other news, Bernanke fights against Fed reform, some failed banks are unwanted at any price, negative comments about AIG, 30 financial groups are on a systemic risk list, the Obama administration will push mortgage firms to reduce more loan payments, Democrats now expect healthcare overhaul to pass, an update on worldwide chip sales, a weak debut of Sands China and India's economy expands 7.9% in fiscal second quarter.

Premarket gainers: SIGA, VPRT, PDLI, AIXG, RTK, MITI, SEED, ALTH, BIIB, TRIT, APWR, FSLR, GENZ, SVA, NVAX, RINO, DEER, SIMG, NLST, VVUS, EMIF, STRA, HEAT, PMI, SKS & RMBS.

Premarket losers: CYNO, ERIC, GERN, VOD, ELS, AIG, UNL, RAX, EDZ, CEO, PTR, GOLD, TSTC, ADM, LYG, ING, RBS, BIDU & PFG.

On today's calendar we only a few regional reports including the 9:45 AM Chicago PMI, the 10:30AM Dallas Fed Manufacturing Outlook and the 12:PM Chicago Fed's Midwest Mfg. Index. However, the news that is likely to garner the most attention will be flowing out of the retail sector regarding Cyber Monday sales and expectations for the remainder of the shopping season based on preliminary data.

If you had the chance to review my daily notes, I added quite a few notes over the weekend including highlighting some key technical levels and divergences that indicate that we're approaching a critical crossroads in the market....

Read more of my premarket report.