MarketWatch | 02/10/2014 | ECB meeting today - Eurozone economy on its knees

Markets in Shanghai and Hong Kong remained closed today for the Chinese National Day celebrations, but that certainly didn't stop traders in Japan from sticking the boot into local equities. A slew of disappointing manufacturing data on Wednesday from the UK, Germany and the US initiated a bout of heavy selling, knocking over 400 points off the Nikkei - a move that was exacerbated by USD/JPY losing ground, with the currency pair trading at one point as low at 108.56.

Wall Street futures are currently suggesting we'll seen an essentially flat start to the session. It's really a case now of all the focus being on the ECB - the Eurozone economy is on its knees and Draghi could take action in today's ECB meeting to try and make a real difference. Markets however don't seem all that convinced that this is on the cards. US factory order data and the Chinese non-manufacturing PMI readings in the next 24 hours will also be under close scrutiny whilst the week will be rounded out with the non-farm payrolls, but some meaningful action from the ECB is probably what counts the most right now. Ahead of the open we're calling the DOW unchanged at 16805 and the S&P up 1 at 1947.  

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stocks-futures-hint-at-another-day-in-red-2014-10-02?link=MW_latest_news