Morning Market Movers: Stocks Hesitant Ahead of Bernanke Remarks

Here’s what’s shaking:

Stocks:

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The new year rally in global markets showed few signs of abating Monday though investors reined in last week's enthusiasm ahead of comments from Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke.

In Europe, Germany's DAX rose 0.4 percent to 7,748 while the CAC-40 in France was 0.4 percent higher at 3,720. Britain's FTSE 100 index was flat at 6,122.

Wall Street was poised for fairly flat opening, with Dow futures and the broader S&P 500 futures down 0.1 percent.

Much of the focus later will center on Bernanke who is due to speak at the University of Michigan after the markets close. Investors will be interested to hear if he sounds more confident about the U.S. economy and provides hints on future monetary policy.

Any market response to Bernanke's comments will initially likely be felt in the currency markets. Ahead of his speech, the dollar was fairly flat, with the euro flat at $1.3340.

Oil:

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Oil prices rose to near $94 on Monday.

Benchmark oil for February delivery was up 33 cents to $93.89 per barrel at late afternoon Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract dropped 26 cents to finish at $93.56 a barrel in New York on Friday.

Brent crude, used to price international varieties of oil, was up 27 cents to $110.91 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

In other energy futures trading on Nymex:

• Wholesale gasoline was almost unchanged at $2.755 a gallon.
• Heating oil rose 1.5 cents to $3.023 a gallon.
• Natural gas rose 3.8 cents to $3.365 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Markets:

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Featured image courtesy Getty Images.