Schacknow - TODAY'S Wednesday PRIMER

Peter Schacknow, Senior Producer, CNBC Breaking News Desk
June 29, 2011


The financial world marks a notable anniversary today: it was five years ago today, on June 29, 2006, that the Federal Reserve last raised interest rates, upping its key federal funds rate from 5% to 5.25%.

That notable anniversary comes as Wall Street makes a late scramble to pare its considerable losses for June - with the Dow coming two straight days of triple-digit gains, the first time that's occurred since December 1-2 of 2010.

Investors are focused on the Greek Parliament this morning, which is debating the controversial austerity package at this hour. A vote is expected to come sometime between 7am and 10am ET.

This morning's economic reports include April pending home sales figures from the National Association of Realtors. Economists expect a 10% increase, mostly reversing an 11.6% drop from March. We'll also get the weekly report on mortgage applications from the Mortgage Bankers Association at 7am ET, and the weekly read on oil and gasoline inventories from the EIA at 10:30am ET.

The Treasury will sell $29 billion in 7-year notes, with the results available shortly after 1pm ET. This follows tepid demand for 2-year and 5-year notes in auctions that were held Monday and Tuesday.

Earnings reports out this morning include retailer Family Dollar (FDO), food maker General Mills (GIS), Monsanto (MON), and homebuilder KB Home (KBH). General Mills may already be a stock to watch ahead of that report, as its board of directors has approved a 9% increase in the quarterly dividend.

We'll also watch shares of Campbell Soup (CPB), which is cutting 770 positions to cut costs and will also take steps to exit the Russian market. CNBC's Kate Kelly reports that Bank of America (BAC) is close to an $8.5 billion settlement with investors who had charged the bank with violating servicing agreements on mortgages.
Toyota (TM) has announced a voluntary recall of about 45,500 Highlander hybrid models and 36,700 Lexus RX models to fix a problem with faulty transistors in the control boards.

In the news, President Obama is scheduled to hold an 11:30am ET news conference at the White House, with the debt limit talks expected to be a primary topic.

Elsewhere in Washington, the Federal Reserve will release its final proposal on debit card fee limits, with banks hoping the Fed will ease a bit on fee caps from its original proposal.