Jobs, Retail Sales & More

Good morning. Futures are positive as the dollar drops and overseas markets rally especially in Tokyo as concerns over the strong yen eased, Euro area GDP was up +0.4% and the ECB left interest rates unchanged at 1% as expected.

That said, much of the positive premarket sentiment also seems directly related to news that Bank of America will replay $45 billion of its TARP loans spurring gains in the financial sector and chatter that tomorrow's jobs report will be surprisingly good due to year-on-year comparisons. For what it is worth, there was another drop in weekly jobless claims.

However not all of the news is positive including some disappointment over same-store sales from retailers, Fed officials warn of difficulty of timing stimulus exit, the U.N. sees slow 2010 global recovery and double-dip risk, a 1 point drop in the Monster Employment Index and a lower than expected Productivity and Costs report.

Read more of my premarket report.