Market futures are maintaining gains on a number of positives: U.S. February retail sales were up, Greece will get its second bailout and German investor sentiment is on the rise.
Futures lost some of their strength after 9 a.m., but remained up: futures on the Dow Jones Industrials rose 46 points to 12,943, and on the Standard & Poor’s 500, up 5.2 points to 1,372.
Retail sales rose 1.1% in February, matching forecasts; the growth was 0.6% without autos and gasoline, higher than expected.
In stock news, at least 50 advisers who managed nearly $12 billion in client assets at Merrill Lynch have departed the Bank of America (BAC) unit since January 1, based on moves tracked by Reuters. Another 20 advisers who managed more than $4 billion in assets have left the firm since September; in total, these departures represent roughly 1 percent of the brokerage’s roughly $1.5 trillion client asset base, according to the Reuters story. Merrill denied there is a “great exodus.”
Deutsche Bank downgraded Cablevision Systems (CVC) to Hold from Buy.
The Wall Street Journal reports that auto repair retailer Midas (MDS) agreed to be acquired by TBC, a unit of Japan’s Sumitomo, for $173 million. Shares of Midas rose 28% in premarket trading.
After reporting lackluster fourth quarter results late Monday, shares of Urban Outfitters (URBN) were off 5%.
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