On a day with light domestic economic data, one has to turn to earnings to gauge the market’s temperament. While the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are receiving a nice lift after the weekend, the Dow is being dragged down today by one component: International Business Machines (IBM). The Dow’s price is determined by the prices of its components and their weights. At the lows of the day, IBM was down a bit over $13, making it responsible for roughly 85 points of the Dow's decline. Apple (AAPL) will release its third quarter earnings results after the close today, and this should also provide several gauges into the health of the tech space, as well as the atmosphere for holiday retail sales. Perhaps the biggest impending news is that China’s Q3 GDP reading will be released this evening and so far, analysts there aren’t as optimistic as their government. Economists expect China to post a Q3 reading of 7.2% growth compared to the 7.5% previous reading and government goal. This reading ought to have broad implications for market volatility tomorrow, however the major economic news today is out of Europe’s largest economy: Germany.

The Producer Price Index (PPI) in Germany declined by 1.0% in September over the same month in the previous year. Prices of intermediate goods decreased by 0.3% and energy prices increased by a relatively large 3.8% percent, while prices of consumer non-durable goods were the same as they were a year ago. The value of the Euro did not waver much one way or the other following the news, but this is the largest year-over-year decline in the German PPI since January of this year. According to the nation’s central bank, Germany’s economy barely grew, at best, in the third quarter as industrial production slowed and business sentiment deteriorated. While growth concerns still exist, the central bank stated this morning that while the German economy was unlikely to enter recession, the economic outlook for the rest of the year is expected to be moderate. The German economy is far from being the canary in the coalmine; it is the coalmine. Naturally, the slew of weak data is causing investors to accentuate worries about Europe, however the complete collapse of the smaller nations ought to be the more relevant point of concern in the near term.