By James Langton

(November 14 – 09:00 ET) – Markets appear poised for a bounce back today. A key piece of economic data — October Retail Sales in the United States — was released this morning. Sales came in higher than expected up 0.1%, up 0.4% excluding automobiles.

Economists were expecting the numbers to both be 0.1% lower. The numbers should help assuage some fears of customer confidence eroding and a hard landing for the economy.

Uncertainty over the U.S. election is still a factor, but it is mostly discounted at this point.

Also in the U.S., Federal Reserve Board Chairman chair Greenspan speaks this morning at a Banco de Mexico conference, prior to the Federal Open Market Committee meeting tomorrow. Traders will be listening, but most expect Greenspan to be circumspect.

There are no economic releases in Canada, today.

Earnings slammed markets yesterday, and today they may be giving back. Vodafone reported better than expected results and strong forecasts, giving some juice to the all-important telecom sector. This is boosting markets across Europe. Decent earnings in Home Depot and Wal-Mart should help confidence, too.

Also this morning, uber-bull and market axe Abby Joseph Cohen spoke to the sales force at Goldman Sachs saying equities are at their most attractive valuations they’ve been all year. She says economic and profit growth have slowed, but that should preserve the “Goldilocks” economy.

In Europe, the Vodafone results have helped the FTSE in London up 79 points to 6,354. In France, the CAC 40 has gained 89 points to 6,127. Germany’s DAX is up 89 to 6,832.

IBM, Nortel, Lucent and Alcatel have announced a co-marketing deal. Financial terms of the alliance were not disclosed.

Overnight Asian markets were calmed by the U.S. resilience. The Nikkei closed down just five points to 14,660. The Hang Seng added 362 points off yesterday’s big selloff, to close at 15,177.

In other news, Danoil Energy Ltd. has announced a letter of intent to acquire Basinview Energy Inc. Danoil has agreed to offer $1.15 cash for each common share of Basinview, valuing the deal at $15 million, including the assumption of approximately $5 million of debt.