Wall Street Greek: Business Preview: European Elections, Gordon Brown Down, Obama's Jobs Initiative, McDonald's Miss

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These guys are cooked! Take a close look at the image here. In the months ahead, these faces will be lost with the many other casualties of The Great Recession. Fringe parties took seats from socialist defenders in the broad sweeping EU elections. Voters displayed a sense of frustration just short of anarchy. We suspect there's a good chance Gordon Brown resigns before the end of the week, and the rest of this crew not long thereafter. European markets reflected concern today as visibility fogged. There's very little economic news to report today, so President Obama took advantage and presented a job creation plan. McDonald's reported growth in May, but it fell short of analysts' hopes, and the stock started lower.

(Tickers: MCD, DIA, SPY, QQQQ, NYX, DOG, SDS, QLD, XLF, IWM, TWM, IWD, SDK, AOI, BKRS, BTH, FGP, FCEL, IDT, PLL, ZQK)

Business Preview

Overseas Markets

Stubborn Brown Faces New Onslaught

With his Labor Party losing seven percentage points and its EU position cut at the knees, the pressure on UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown now seems certain to overwhelm him. Conservatives took the election across broader Europe, and by 12 percentage points in the UK. Members of his own party are more likely to seek his resignation now, after losing long-lasting seats to fringe parties across the UK. For instance, a party that only allows whites in its membership took local seats in the EU away from Labor, while a party seeking Scottish independence did as well. We cannot see how Brown can retain his leadership role without the support of his party for long. Elections are due within a year, and Labor has the long-term to concern itself with.

European Elections

The distraught citizenry of the European Union expressed their frustration with the economic crisis and with political scandal in dramatic fashion. Previously popular socialists scattered lost support in every which direction, losing seats in some cases to extremists. Needless to say, expect to see far different faces atop governments across Europe as elections come to pass, and in some cases are forced to the fore. The upheaval spurred concern in financial markets that prefer visibility. Across the whole of Europe, national indexes declined significantly.

Asia:

MSCI Asia APEX 50: -1.94%

Japan NIKKEI 225: +1.0%

Hong Kong Hang Seng: -2.28%

China CSI 300: +0.31%

India BSE SENSEX 30: -2.9%

Europe:

DJ Euro STOXX 50: -1.48%

UK FTSE 100: -1.14%

France CAC 40: -1.5%

Germany DAX: -1.42%

(Prices as of hour of publishing, which may not be the close)

Obama's Jobs Plan

The economic schedule is blank today in the US, but President Obama unveiled 10 government projects he hopes and expects will save or create 600,000 jobs. Obama's plan is to efficiently put to use the $787 billion in stimulus funds his Administration asked for and received in February. Obama has branded this initiative, the "Summer of Accelerated Recovery Act Activity." Yikes! It lacks ring... The plan will direct funds to health centers, national parks, airports, highways and veterans' medical facilities, so go turn in your resume...

Corporate News Drivers

The day's earnings schedule is light, including news from Alliance One Int'l (NYSE: AOI), Bakers Footwear (Nasdaq: BKRS), Blyth (NYSE: BTH), Ferrellgas Partners (NYSE: FGP), FuelCell Energy (Nasdaq: FCEL), IDT Corp. (NYSE: IDT), Pall Corp. (NYSE: PLL) and Quiksilver (NYSE: ZQK).

McDonald's Sales

McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) shares were down 2.8% in the premarket after reporting May same-store sales increased 5.1%. While McDonald's international sales benefited from longer breakfast hours and other initiatives, its US business displayed same-store sales growth of just 2.8% (4.3% last year). The stock's decline can be attributed to the company's falling short of analysts' expectations. One cannot deny the importance of growth in such an economy, so this is a valuation check more than anything else. The money had already been made in MCD.