There is a bullish bias in the futures market this morning as a panel of pressure gauges is showing some comforting indications for market participants.

In particular:

• Mitt Romney won the Florida GOP primary by a wide margin over Newt Gingrich
• Portugal successfully auctioned off EUR 1.5 bln of 3-month and 6-month bills, seeing strong demand and noticeably lower yields than the prior auction
• The yield on Italy's 10-year note has dropped to 5.74% in the secondary market while the yield on Spain's 10-year note has slipped to 4.62%
• China's official PMI report for January ticked up to 50.5 -- an expansionary reading and soft-landing indicator -- from 50.3 in December and
• The ADP Employment Change report showed another solid increase (+170,000) in private sector employment in January

At the moment, the S&P futures are up 8 points and are trading 0.6% above fair value.  The bulk of that gain was in place ahead of the ADP report, which was actually a bit shy of the Briefing.com consensus estimate of 200,000 and the downwardly revised December reading (to 292,000 from 325,000).

Although the ADP headlines did not live up to the fullest expectations, the January report is not a bad report.  The overriding message is that the private sector is creating jobs, the bulk of which are being found at small-sized and medium-sized business, which added 95,000 and 72,000 positions, respectively.

Coincidentally, the Senior Loan Officer Survey released on Monday revealed that banks are seeing more loan demand from small businesses.  That of course could be spun as a signal that small businesses are strapped for cash more so than they are angling to increase borrowings to meet growing demand.  There is a latent message of improving demand, however, with small businesses leading the hiring activity.

The nonfarm payrolls report will be released on Friday.  While today's ADP number could temper expectations just a bit, there is still a good basis to believe nonfarm private payroll gains will be closer to 200,000 than 100,000.

There is more economic data on tap today. 

The January ISM Index (Briefing.com consensus 54.5; prior 53.9) at 10:00 a.m. ET will be a market mover.  Construction spending data for December (Briefing.com consensus +0.4%; prior +1.2%) will be released at the same time and will be followed by crude inventories data at 10:30 a.m. ET and auto and truck sales reports for January throughout the day.

Earnings results continue to roll in and they continue to be accented with more beats than misses.

Amazon.com (AMZN) was one company that beat estimates, yet that good news was quickly overshadowed by disappointing guidance for the first quarter.  Shares of AMZN are indicated to open almost 10% lower and will be a drag on the Nasdaq.

Conversely, Seagate Technology (STX) is indicated to open 10% higher after the hard disc drive maker beat estimates and raised its FY12 revenue guidance well above the current consensus estimate, noting demand will outpace supply in a benign pricing environment.

Like the U.S. market, most foreign markets have exhibited a bullish bias.  China was the major exception.  Despite the encouraging PMI report, the Shanghai Composite declined 1.0%.  We suspect that move, however, is owed to some profit taking on the notion that the data pointing to a soft-landing scenario seemingly reduces the need for quicker action with monetary policy easing measures.

In any event, there is a good foundation for a positive start in February for the S&P 500, which just completed its best January since 1997.

--Patrick J. O'Hare, Briefing.com

Patrick J. O'Hare is Chief Market Analyst for Briefing Research, Briefing.com's institutional research service. To request a free trial, please email researchsales@briefing.com.