Market Talk

Or, at least, Google was weighing on the market. Stocks certainly have taken off since our report at 10:30 in the a.m. Guess the markets put those disappointing earnings reports behind them, and are buying the Fed’s argument that there isn’t any inflation, at least any that’s going to last.

Good luck with that one.

Big show today. We covered Bank of America’s earnings, the SEC’s likely settlement with the banks over the issue of mortgage-backed securities, and the potential Groupon IPO.

Lackluster earnings results from Google last night and BofA this morning don’t bother investors much, as US stocks look to open generally flat to a shade lower, based on indications from equity futures.

Markets currently modestly higher in Europe, while stocks were mostly lower in Asia overnight. We’ll get some sense of how much higher producer prices are feeding through to consumers with release of March CPI at 8:30 a.m. ET.

New York Fed’s April Empire State manufacturing survey also set for 8:30 a.m.; March industrial production & capacity utilization due at 9:15 a.m.; and Thomson Reuters/Univ of Michigan prelim April consumer sentiment at 9:55 a.m.

S&P futures down 3.60, DJ futures down 34. Ten-year note higher, yield at 3.47%. Crude floating around the $108/barrel mark.

Meanwhile, our colleague Dave Benoit sums up all the news surrounding Bank of America this morning:

Bank of America (BAC) announces a whole lot of news all at once this morning. A quick summation: $2 billion in earnings, at 17c a share misses expectations of 27c a share. But revenue beats. Deposit-group and investment-bank earnings are both down from year ago, the latter sharply from strong 2010. And CFO Chuck Noski is out, moving to a vice chairman role in a company with a separate chairman and CEO already. He’ll be replaced by chief risk officer Bruce Thompson. Chief counsel is also changed. The 2010 year of rebuilding appears to be continuing into 2011. BAC is paring bigger premarket losses minutes earlier, with shares now up 0.8% at $13.23.