S&P 500 futures fell 5.25 points to 1377.25, NASDAQ futures fell 9 points to 2633.00, and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures lost 32 points to trade just above the significant 13000.00 level at 13001.00.

David Cornes holds a degree in economics from the University of Montana.

Chicago Bridge & Iron Co. (CBI) agreed to buy SHAW for a price of $3 billion, or $41 cash and $5 stock over the weekend causing a massive gain in SHAW’s stock price.  The acquisition will create one of the world’s largest energy service firms. SHAW will bring a new nuclear sector to CBI’s portfolio, with the first nuclear reactor design permitted since 1978. This deal marks the largest construction and engineering industry merger of the 79 deals sealed this year with an average premium of around 10%.the deal is expected to be completed in early 2013 after approval from shareholders, management and regulators.

David Cornes holds a degree in economics from the University of Montana.

The only announcement today in the market is the Dallas Fed Manufacturing survey.
The report is due out at 10:30am.

The S&P 500 is up once again at 1.91% while 10-year treasuries are down 0.32%.
Oil is down as well at 0.75% and the dollar is up at 0.27%.

What should you watch for today? Gold. All over every finance site there are
chartists and analysts claiming that gold may be ready to make some big moves this
week. It was only up 2.2% at the close on Friday but make sure to watch today and
see if all the hype comes true.

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The Hang Seng was the top performing Asian Index adding 1.6% on the day. HSBC holdings rose 1.7% ahead of its earnings announcement. HSBC is down 4.7% for July however, up 10.7% on the year. Tingyi, China resources land, and China resources power were the only losers of the day each down between 1 and 1.5% while the biggest gainer was Sands China up 5.71%.

The FTSEurofirst is up 1.1% on the day so far, at 1,068 a level not seen since April. The support comes from Italy’s debt sale of 5.48B euros of government bonds, the rate of which dropped to 5.96% from 6.19% from the auction in June. This escalated Italy’s FTSE MIB 2.7% and Spain’s IBEX 2.1%.

EU competition authorities charge Teva, Servier, Mylan labs and three other companies with blocking generic perindopril drugs, which treats hypertension, from entering the market.

Former FED economist Ward McCarthy suggests the Fed may lower interest paid on reserves to 0%, which should inject cash into the economy. Crude, natural gas and silver are all set to begin the day with slight gains, while gold is down just .05%.

Contributer Chris Rygh is currently pursuing his MBA in Wisconsin and has a passion for the Market. Comments can be directed to ryghcw19@uww.edu

S&P 500 futures gained 15.75 points to 1370.50 this morning and has been trading near the highs all morning. NASDAQ futures rallied 42 points to 2614.50 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures gained 108 points to 12933.00.

David Cornes holds a degree in economics from the University of Montana.