ECONOMY & MARKETS

Stocks dropped again over fears of spreading euro zone debt crisis, although equities seemed to stabilize somewhat on mid-afternoon reports that Republic politicians agreed to compromise with President Obama on extending the George W. Bush-era tax cuts.

Kenya's central bank said on Tuesday it would be revising its monetary policy targets after signs that two years of monetary easing had lowered commercial lending rates and increased loan volumes.

U.S. stocks are slightly down in afternoon trading as investors weigh better-than-expected U.S. economic data against continued sovereign debt woes from Europe.

NZD/USD has broken below its key support level on Tuesday as dollar's across-the-board strength weighed on the kiwi currency, and at a near 2 month low, the pair is now testing its 100-day SMA on the daily chart. Momentum indicators clearly suggest the pair is in the oversold zone but a strong technical reversal also need the support of good news from the Euro-zone, traders said.

U.S. home prices fell by 2.0 percent in the third quarter of 2010, after having risen 4.7 percent in the second quarter, according to data from S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices.

Consumer confidence in the U.S. improved in November to reach the highest point in the last five months, suggesting the economy is still expanding, albeit it slowly.

US stocks declined in early trade on Tuesday as renewed concerns about European sovereign debt crisis weighed on sentiment.

Online retail sales soared 19.4 percent through the afternoon of Cyber Monday from the prior year, according to data from Coremetrics, a division of IBM (NYSE: IBM).

The European Commission has decided to probe Google Inc. after complaints by search service providers about unfavourable treatment of their services in Google's search results along with an alleged preferential placement of Google's own services.

The top pre-market NASDAQ stock market gainers are: Interactive Brokers Group, SodaStream International, Deckers Outdoor, Research In Motion, optionsXpress Holdings, Sangamo Biosciences, DepoMed, Silver Standard Resources, and Pan American Silver.

The East Asian bond market, especially corporate bonds, continues to expand and draw strong demand from return-starved Western investors.

The top pre-market NASDAQ stock market losers are: Mecox Lane, Seagate Technology, ASML Holding, Aixtron, Qiagen, Altera, Vodafone Group, Avanir Pharmaceuticals, and Dell.

China has said it will revise penalties on price manipulations, stepping up its measures to tackle inflation.

Futures on major U.S. stock indices point to a lower opening on Tuesday as renewed concerns about European sovereign debt crisis weighed on sentiment.

GBP/USD has fallen to a 2-month low on Tuesday helped by safe-haven interest in the US dollar and investors are now seeking nearest supports for the pair as they await positive-looking economic data from the US, due later in the day.

Seagate' announcement that it has ended talks with private equity group over taking the company private is not exactly a surprise, an analyst with ThinkEquity said.

Eurozone annual inflation rate remained unchanged in November after inching closer to the European Central Bank's (ECB) target of 2 percent in October.

Consumer confidence in the UK remained deep in the negative territory in November, as people were factoring in the impact of the government’s austerity measures, according to a survey.

USD/CAD is currently holding near its 200-day moving average but the formation of an ascending triangle from start of this month has made the situation ripe for a jump on Tuesday, especially ahead of key data from the US and Canada.

After the financial markets gave thumbs down to the Irish bailout deal and the common currency slumped further, the focus is converging on the eurozone itself, rather than on the indebted individual members of the bloc.

Jefferies & Co. upgraded its rating of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM) to 'buy' from 'hold' and increased its price target to $80 from $55.

USD/JPY tends to fall further as the session grows to Europe and given the market mood to stay prepared for more bad news from Portugal or Spain, likely in the coming days, the pair may only have a brief stop near 83.75 (S1), the 61.8 percent Fibonacci from late September levels. It could hold that level for the day.

The top after-market NASDAQ stock market losers are: Zoltek Companies, Seagate Technology, Maxygen, Comverge, China Medical Technologies, Porter Bancorp, TICC Capital, Approach Resources, Shanda Games, and Johnson Outdoors.

ThinkEquity has increased its profit estimates and price target on Apple Inc., saying that the recent expansion of iPad distribution in the U.S. and iPad's launch in more international markets, easing of supply constraints this quarter are strong positives for the company.

The top after-market NASDAQ stock market gainers are: Parexel International, hiSoft Technology International, Kforce, SodaStream International, Interactive Brokers Group, Stereotaxis, Pixelworks, LoopNet, Mellanox Technologies, and Ancestry.com.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) said that 212 million U.S. shoppers visited stores and websites over the Black Friday weekend, up from 195 million last year. Moreover, the average shopper spent $365.34 this weekend, up from last year’s $343.31 figure.

Stocks fell, but finished significantly above intra-day lows, as the market recovered somewhat from early losses triggered by renewed fears that the euro zone debt crisis could spread beyond Ireland to Portugal and Spain.

While investors currently grapple with a number of very troubling geopolitical and economic issues -- namely the threat of war in Korea and the potential sovereign debt contagion in Europe, interest rate hikes by China, among others – some might take solace in the fact that December has consistently been the best-performing months for U.S. going back more than sixty years.

Below the 30-mark, RSI on both day and 4-hour charts suggest the pair is in the oversold territory and any fundamental signal showing weakness for the greenback could push the pair up to 1.320-1.327 (R1) before marching ahead to 1.336 (R2), its 38.2 percent Fibonacci. Further up, 1.344 (R3) is seen as a strong resistance for the pair.