Before the bell: What you need to know before the US market open
It's the last day of May, people are back at their desks after a long weekend in the UK and the US and markets in New York are pointing up.
Here's what you need to know before the US market open at 14:30 London time.
Ahead of the open the S&P is up by 0.04 per cent, while the Nasdaq is up by 0.15 per cent. The Dow is 0.12 per cent higher in the pre-market.
It's not been a great start to the day in Europe, though Asian markets did much better. The Shanghai Composite ended the day up by 3.3 per cent.
The FTSE 100, the Cac 40 and the German Dax are all down between 0.1 and 0.33 per cent.
Europe remains mired in deflation…
Consumer prices in the eurozone fell 0.1 per cent year-over-year in May, according to the latest Eurostat data.
The figure was up slightly from the 0.2 per cent decline experienced in April, and in line with economist's forecasts. Removing food and energy prices the core reading climbed 0.8 per cent year-on-year.
Read more: ECB tells Germany it won't be taking any more flak
Meanwhile, German unemployment is at a record low – down to six per cent in May, from 6.3 per cent the month before.
The US 10-year bond yield is up three basis points at 1.88 per cent.
Stocks to watch
Electric-car maker Tesla is holding its annual shareholder meeting in California at 22:00 London time. Investors will be keen to hear any update on whether the company will be able to hit its production targets for the new Model Three.
Verizon's tiff with its workers has been all but cleared up. On Friday it was revealed the company had reached a deal with its unions to end a long-running strike – there's concern that the strike action could throw off the US jobs data out on Friday.
Yesterday Verizon said workers had negotiated a healthy pay raise and bonus – giving 40,000 network technicians and customer service representatives a pay raise of at least 10.5 per cent over the next four years.
Companies reporting today
Volkswagen, the German car manufacturer that's still reeling from the emissions test scandal that emerged in September last year, has reported its first quarter profit before tax fell by 19.3 per cent to €3.2bn (£2.4bn).
Read more: ECB to keep stimulus on ice
Sales fell 1.2 per cent to 2.6m vehicles.
In economics
A few things to keep people busy this today.
The Chicago PMI and consumer confidence is today's economic highlight and drops at 2:45pm London time.
Before that though we'll get the personal income and spending from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and core PCE prices at 1:30pm. The Case Shiller 20-city Index, which tracks the health of the US housing market, is released at 2:00pm.