European bourses opened in positive territory, led by financials as Lloyds said its trading has been strong in the first 10 weeks of 2010. However, equities came under pressure later in the session following concerns regarding Greece not being able to get financial aid from the EU. Also adding to volatility is the fact that it is quadruple witching day today. German 10-year government bund futures gained strength into the European open on the back of ongoing concern regarding failure of Greece to get aid from the EU that led to widening of Greek/German 10-year government bond yield spread.

Congressional Budget Office announced they estimate that the Democrats' revised health care bill will cost $940 billion over the next 10 years. If the bill is passed, it will be a 10-year plan that would provide coverage to around 32 million people who are currently uninsured. It would guarantee that 95% of Americans will be covered, it would also reduce Medicare expenses by 1.4%. The bill would cut the deficit by $130 billion during the first decade. And it would reduce the deficit by another $1.2 trillion in the following decade. In the future, the bill would put new obligations on business and individuals, requiring for the first time that most Americans carry health insurance and penalizing medium-sized and large companies that don't provide coverage for their workers. For the bill to be passed, first, the House will have to approve a Senate bill that many of its Democratic members object to and after that both chambers will quickly pass a package of fixes agreed to in negotiations with the White House. Democrats will promise 72 hours for everyone, including the public to look over the new piece of legislation, that would push back a House vote until Sunday at the earliest. In other news, Greece announced Thursday that it will be forced to tap the International Monetary Fund if the European Union can't make a decision by next week. Many feel if they go outside of the 16-nation euro zone, it could continue to help weaken the euro. Stocks rose for the eighth day in a row today. Helping with today's increases, was news from the Conference Board, who announced that leading economic indicators rose 0.1% in February, after rising 0.3% the month prior; analysts predictions were in line with the reading. Commodity prices fell, gold rose $3.40 to $1,127.40 and crude oil fell $0.73 to $82.20.

European bourses opened lower, on the back of reduced risk appetite following the Greek IMF bailout plans announced overnight. However, moving into the North American open losses have almost been paired. The financial sector is the worst performing. Weakness has been observed in basic materials as well following the strength in the USD index. German 10-year bund futures open higher and have since fluctuated on large supply from France and Spain. Moving into the North American open, bund futures are trading in positive territory.