Wall Street Greek: Veterans Day - Markets Mostly Open

Visit the front pages of Wall Street Greek to see our current coverage of economic reports and financial markets.

(Tickers: NYSE: TOL, AAP, ANW, Nasdaq: AEZS, AMAT, AMEX: BLD, CAE, CAMT, CPHC, GRRF, CHLN, CSC, CTRP, DAC, MSN, FLO, GMCR, ING, JCDA, M, PHC, RA, TTEK, PGR, USHS, WES, XRIT, UBET, ZOLL, DIA, SPY, QQQQ, NYX, DOG, SDS, QLD, XLF, IWM, TWM, IWD, SDK, AIG)

Today marks Veteran's Day, but stock and futures markets are open for business. Fixed income markets are closed today though, as we honor our nation's war heroes. After a relatively flat day of trading on Tuesday, early indicators seem to indicate the same in store for Wednesday, barring any breaking market moving news. We have a quiet news day to report, but several important foreign and international organizations made headlines with some market moving comments. Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL) and Macy's (NYSE: M) lead U.S. news makers.

Overseas Action

There's plenty of overseas action this morning, with news out of OPEC, The World Bank and Bank of England. World Bank President Robert Zoellick warned that high unemployment threatened American (and global) recovery. He noted a few of the thorns we've discussed here over recent months. Ongoing credit defaults and consumer spending should hamper the robustness of economic recovery, and even threaten to "double dip" us back into recession. Zoellick sees U.S. unemployment sticking high in 2010.

Bank of England (BOE) Governor Mervyn King discussed the BOE's quarterly forecast, and noted that he still has an "open mind" regarding stimulus tools, including bond purchases. He said that while the Kingdom's economy has stabilized, it continues to have quite a way to go to return to recent past levels of health.

OPEC warned that high priced crude threatens demand in 2010. In an environment of unstable economic recovery, OPEC is concerned that the price of oil (and clearly alternative energy advancements) threaten crude demand. We'll have more to say about this in a near-term article.

Gates in NYC

I'm not talking about Hell's Gate Bridge here... Rather, for $50 you could have seen Bill Gates today in Manhattan. The iconic technology innovator and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) legend will appear with Economist Editor Matthew Bishop at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan. We checked though, and tickets appear to be sold out or already prebooked fully. "The Greek" would consider playing financial markets paparazzi today, to grab a photo of the king of software, if not for a busy schedule.

Corporate News Drivers

Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL) is up over 13% in the early going Wednesday, after the homebuilder reported signed contracts soared 42% in its fiscal fourth quarter ended October 31. That news far outweighed a sharp drop in revenue, and has the shares moving today.

Macy's (NYSE: M) is down 6% to start the day, on its lower than consensus forecast. The company reported a lower loss for its third quarter, and raised its outlook. Unfortunately for shareholders, its lifting of its EPS forecast did not reach the level analysts were looking for.

The day's earnings schedule includes Advance Auto Parts (NYSE: AAP), Aegean Marine Petroleum (NYSE: ANW), Aeterna Zentaris (Nasdaq: AEZS), Applied Materials (Nasdaq: AMAT), Baldwin Technology (AMEX: BLD), CAE, Inc. (NYSE: CAE), Camtek (Nasdaq: CAMT), Canterbury Park Holdings (Nasdaq: CPHC), China Grentech (Nasdaq: GRRF), China Housing & Land (Nasdaq: CHLN), Computer Sciences (NYSE: CSC), Ctrip.com Int'l (Nasdaq: CTRP), Danaos (NYSE: DAC), Emerson Radio (NYSE: MSN), Flowers Foods (NYSE: FLO), Green Mountain Coffee (Nasdaq: GMCR), ING Groep NV (NYSE: ING), Jacada (Nasdaq: JCDA), Macy's (NYSE: M), Pioneer Behavioral Health (NYSE: PHC), RailAmerica (NYSE: RA), Tetra Tech (Nasdaq: TTEK), The Progressive (NYSE: PGR), U.S. Home Systems (Nasdaq: USHS), Western Gas Partners (NYSE: WES), X Rite (Nasdaq: XRIT), Youbet.com (Nasdaq: UBET), Zoll Medical (Nasdaq: ZOLL) and more.