Peter Schacknow, Senior Producer, CNBC Breaking News Desk
Wall Street stock investors can only hope the new month begins like the old one ended - with a spate of bullish news propelling the Dow to its biggest one-day gain since March of 2009. That last-day rally also managed to put the Dow in positive territory for November.
Economic data will compete with the European debt crisis for attention today, with a number of key reports on the calendar. Both automakers and retail chain stores are out with their monthly sales numbers for November today, with both being watched as a gauge of consumer spending enthusiasm as the holiday season begins.
At 8:30am ET, the Labor Department is out with its weekly report on initial jobless claims, which will get close scrutiny ahead of Friday's government employment report for November. Economists expect initial claims to drop to 390,000 from last week's reading of 393,000.
At 10am Et, the Institute For Supply Management will issue its monthly manufacturing index for November, with consensus forecasts calling for a rise to 52.0 from October's 50.8.
October construction spending figures are out at the same time, with economists looking for an increase of 0.3% following September's rise of 0.2%.
The earnings calendar is relatively light once again, with supermarket operator Kroger (KR) the only company of note issuing quarterly numbers this morning, and tax preparation giant H&R Block (HRB) headlining today's after-the-bell reports.
Costco (COST) is a stock to watch today, as it reports November same-store sales rose by 9%, above analyst estimates.
Dow component Walt Disney (DIS) may see some buying interest this morning, after the company raised its annual dividend by 50% to 60 cents per share. The opposite could be true for another Dow component, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), which saw its debt rating downgraded two notches by Standard & Poor's.
Clorox (CLX) also makes the watch list, as investor Carl Icahn reduces his stake in the company to 5.38% from 6.89%.
We'll also keep Yahoo (YHOO) on our perennial watch list, as the latest reports say Blackstone and Bain Capital will join Alibaba Group in planning a bid for the entire company. The most recent rumors had a variety of parties considering bids for only part of Yahoo.
And for stocks not yet ready to watch: Sources tell CNBC Zynga will likely price its IPO on December 15, with trading to begin the following day. The source says the price range is likely to be $8 - $10 per share.
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