What to watch, courtesy of Yahoo! Finance's Elizabeth Trotta:

Good morning,

Futures are pointing to a lower open after Fitch downgraded Greece further into junk status, saying default is highly likely in the near term.

In corporate news, Royal Dutch Shell bid $1.6B for Cove Energy, Nokia is expected to unveil a cheaper smartphone using Microsoft Windows software next week, and Johnson & Johnson's Bill Weldon is stepping down as the company's CEO.

Among the stocks to watch, Dell shares were more than 6% lower in the premarket after it missed on earnings and offered a weaker than expected forecast after the close on Tuesday. And Toll Brothers trailed 4% in the premarket after it fell short on income and revenue early Wednesday.

Commodities will continue to be in focus with oil near $106 amid tensions in Iran and gold at $1,757. On the economic data front, the Mortgage Bankers Association said mortgage application activity decreased 4.5% last week amid sagging demand for refinancing.

By Daniel Gross

"The West as such is not finished, but its global supremacy is over," Zbigniew Brzezinski writes in his new book, Strategic Vision: America and the Crisis of Global Power.

But that doesn't mean the U.S. should simply sit back, detach from the evolving world, and see its influence decline, as Great Britain did in the years after World War II. Rather, as Brzezinski tells me in the accompanying video, the U.S. has an extremely important twin role to play.

An adherent of the "realist" school of foreign policy, Brzezinski, a long-time national security expert, argues that in this evolving, interconnected world, it's simply impossible for one nation, or even one region, to dominate large chunks of the world the way Rome did 2000 years ago, or the Ottoman Empire did 500 years ago, or the British Empire did a century ago. "The world is now much more diversified," he says. "There is a new east in Asia, and there is a global population that is awakened politically." A chart in

Good morning,

U.S. futures are pointing to a higher open after the EU agreed to save Greece from default with a $170 billion bailout package that includes last-minute concessions from private bondholders. Banks will lose nearly three-quarters of the value of their Greek government bonds, slightly more than expected.

Elsewhere, the drama surrounding Japan's Olympus continues with a developing power struggle as foreign investors have accused its banks of stealth attempts to take over the boardroom.

In early corporate news, Home Depot said its fiscal fourth-quarter net income rose 32%, topping expectations. The home improvement stores benefited from mild weather and an increase in spending on renovation projects.

This week brings a new slate of housing data with new and existing home sales and the FHFA Housing Price Index in addition to the usual weekly mortgage rates and MBA Mortgage Index. Government officials are unveiling new standards this week for how banks treat Americans facing

What to watch, courtesy of Yahoo! Finance's Elizabeth Trotta

Good morning,

Futures are little changed as Congress is preparing to vote on a $143 billion package to extend payroll tax cuts for 160 million workers and jobless benefits for those out of work the longest and forestall cuts in Medicare reimbursements to doctors through 2012. If the bill passes, jobless benefits in states with the highest unemployment will gradually fall to 73 a week from 99 weeks by September, while other states will see the benefit cut off at 63 weeks.

As the election nears, CNNMoney offers a breakdown of how the candidates tax plans stack up. (Republican plans generally would result in lower revenue offset by steeper spending cuts, while President Obama is mulling raising taxes.)

Of course, markets are still focusing on Greece. France stood up for the troubled nation Friday as tensions with Germany bubbled. The French Prime Minister said European nations should make every effort to help Greece avoid a

"We want Lin! We want Lin!" Madison Square Garden rang with the chant in the fourth period Wednesday night as the Knicks' solid lead over the Kings gave the newest star in New York a chance to relax on the bench and bask, albeit very humbly, in the fanfare. The excitement is Lin-fectious.

As Jeremy Lin's star has suddenly risen, so has Madison Square Garden Company stock. Shares are near their all-time high, and as Derek Thomson at The Atlantic points out, the chart reflects pretty clearly the "Lin-sanity."

Vendors at the Garden talked excitedly with fans about Lin Wednesday night. The merchandise was markedly in demand, with whole sections of the crowd wearing Lin jerseys. But the items were just as — or more — plentiful in supply. Earlier in the week, fans were photographed creating their own Lin jerseys by taping 1s onto the back of their Carmelo Anthony Jerseys to change his number 7 into a Jeremy Lin 17 (Sorry, Carmelo).

Secondary ticket sales themselves offer an interesting

What to watch, courtesy of Yahoo! Finance's Elizabeth Trotta:

Good morning,

Futures followed world markets lower as investors worry about Greek debt crisis contagion amid confusion over whether or not the nation will get bailout cash necessary to avoid default. The confusion comes after relations between Greece and its partners hit on Wednesday what Reuters has called a new low. On Thursday, Spain confirmed that its economy shrank 0.3% in the final quarter of 2011, amid increasing likelihood it will slip back into recession. And Moody's warned that it may downgrade the credit ratings of 17 global and 114 European financial institutions as the affects of the debt crisis ripple throughout the global financial system.

In the U.S., RealtyTrac reported that foreclosures rose by 3% in January over December, with one in every 624 U.S. households involved in some sort of foreclosure filing. But filings were still down 19% vs. a year ago. More data on the housing situation -- in the form of

By Zachary Roth and Daniel Gross

Can jobs be America's next big import from China?

While touring a factory owned by Master Lock on Wednesday, President Obama urged manufacturers to bring jobs back to the U.S. "Right now we have an excellent opportunity to bring manufacturing back-- but we have to seize it," Obama said. Obama praised Master Lock during his State of the Union Address for re-shoring about 100 jobs from China to its Milwaukee plant.

Call it "insourcing," "onshoring," or "reshoring." The trend, while small, may pick up pace, as Harold Sirkin, a partner at Boston Consulting Group, tells Dan in the accompanying video. Sirkin, who has advised President Obama on the topic, is one of the co-authors of a lengthy report, Made in America — Again, which makes the case for an impending wave of reshoring. In recent years, globalization and the shape of the world's economy have pushed American companies — manufacturers and service providers alike — to look overseas for cheap labor. But

What to watch, courtesy of Yahoo! Finance's Elizabeth Trotta:

Good morning,

Futures are pointing to a higher open with expectations that Greece will commit to the terms of an EU/IMF bailout deal within the day. Data earlier in the day showed the economic output of the euro zone nations slumped 0.3% in the fourth quarter vs. the third, as expected, marking the first contraction since the first half of 2009.

In the U.S., the Mortgage Bankers Association said its index of mortgage and refinancing application activity dipped 1% last week as home demand slid. The NAHB Housing Market Index as well as data on New York manufacturing, industrial production and crude oil inventories are expected later this morning. More housing, inflation and manufacturing data will follow later in the week.

In corporate news, Kellogg is buying Pringles from Procter & Gamble for $2.7B in cash. Comcast topped expectations early Wednesday with help from video and internet subscriber gains. Zynga will also be a