U.S. stocks march higher, Nasdaq leads Tech leads S&P sector gains; healthcare down European stocks also up, EM up 2% Dlr, gold down, oil, bitcoin up; 10-yr US Treasury yield ~1.73% Jan 12 - Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of markets brought to you by Reuters reporters. You can share your thoughts with us at markets.research@thomsonreuters.com SMALL CAPS POISED TO SHINE AS FED TIGHTENS -BOFA (1000 EST/1500 GMT As price-to-earnings ratios expanded in December, small caps remained the least stretched and are now historically cheap on every metric analysts at Bank of America track. With the Federal Reserve poised to soon hike interest rates the P/E implications for small-caps indicate they"ll contract less than for large caps in the initial phase of tightening, BofA analysts said in a note on Wednesday. Valuations expanded across stock sizes last month, with the forward P/E rising 3-4% across the Russell 2000 (.RUT) (to 16.2x from 15.6x), the Russell MidCap (to 19.6x from 18.9x) and Russell 1000 (to 21.6x from 20.9x), BofA said. But for the year, there were multiple contractions, with the P/E falling 14% for small caps, 7% for mid caps and 5% for large caps. Earnings were the main driver of returns, where expectations rose about 30% across the size segments, led by small caps. While back above average, small caps" forward P/E is the least-stretched at 5% above historical averages compared to 30%-40% above average for mid- and large caps, respectively. The long-term valuation framework suggests that the Russell 2000 could see high single-digit annualized returns over the next decade, versus low single-digit annualized returns for the Russell 1000 and slightly negative returns for the S&P 500 (.SPX). (Herbert Lash) ***** FUTURES UP; CPI DATA MEETS EXPECTATIONS (0915 EST/1415 GMT) U.S. stock index futures are higher early on Wednesday, with S&P 500 e-minis up about 0.4%, adding to gains after data on U.S. consumer prices were mostly in line with economists" expectations. The consumer price index increased 0.5% last month, the Labor Department said. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the CPI gaining 0.4%. read more In the 12 months through December, the CPI surged 7.0%. That was the biggest year-on-year increase since June 1982 and followed a 6.8% rise in November. Investors have been concerned after from the Federal Reserve released minutes last week from their December policy meeting that signaled the central bank may have to raise interest raise rates sooner than expected to curb inflation. Focus will turn to earnings later this week, when some of the big Wall Street banks report results, kicking off the profit reporting period. Here is the premarket snapshot: for Jan 12 for Jan 12 (Caroline Valetkevitch) ***** FOR WEDNESDAY"S LIVE MARKETS" POSTS PRIOR TO 0900 EST/1400 GMT - CLICK HERE: read more