Schacknow - TODAY'S PRIMER

July 25, 2011

Peter Schacknow, Senior Producer, CNBC Breaking News Desk

Wall Street's back-and-forth trading trend will swing back to the downside this morning, with stock index futures pointing to a sharply lower open.

That comes as Democratic and Republican lawmakers apparently remain far apart on striking a deal to raise the nation's debt limit.

The Dow has alternated between gains and losses for 9 straight sessions, although it would have been higher Friday were it not for the decline posted by Caterpillar (CAT) following its quarterly earnings report.

Despite the focus on the U.S. debt limit talks, the European debt crisis remains in the news, with Moody's cutting Greece's rating another three notches to just one notch above default.

That gives Greece the lowest rating of any country in the world covered by Moody's.
While investors continue to keep an eye on the U.S. debt limit negotiations, earnings are again a big factor in this week's trading with 180 S&P 500 companies scheduled to report.

Eaton (ETN), Kimberly-Clark (KMB), Lorillard (LO), and Roper Industries (ROP) are among those reporting this morning, with Anadarko Petroleum (APC), Baidu (BIDU), Broadcom (BRCM), Netflix (NFLX), and Texas Instruments (TXN) among those set to report after this afternoon's closing bell.

There are no major economic reports on today's calendar, though the Dallas Fed regional survey will be issued at 10:30am ET.

E*Trade (ETFC) will be a stock to watch once again today, as it says it will do a "broad review of strategic alternatives" following a call by major shareholder Citadel to do just that.

Separately, TD Ameritrade will reportedly meet this week to consider possible pursuit of its rival, according to the Wall Street Journal.

We'll also watch shares of Dow component United Technologies (UTX), with the Journal reporting the company is considering a partial sale of its rocket engine business.

Social networking companies are also on the watch list, as Barron's highlights a possible social networking bubble among companies like Facebook, Groupon, LinkedIn (LNKD), Pandora (P), and Zillow (Z).