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Futures Creep Tentatively Toward Green as Open Approaches

Eric Gillin

Fog rolled in during the early morning, with futures looking gray and wan, while overseas markets were sunnier. After a 200-point rally on the Nasdaq Composite Index , which sorely needed the gains after last week's dreadful performance, Nasdaq 100 futures were to the downside, but not overwhelmingly so.

Nasdaq 100 futures on Globex, an electronic exchange specializing in currency and index options, were off 18 points to 2082. Compared to fair value, the true mathematical relationship between futures and the index that those futures correspond with, that's actually a drop of about 20. S&P 500 futures on Globex were off 3.1 points to 1270.5. That's off less than a point from fair value as calculated by Prudential Securities.

So, judging from the futures, it looks like both the Nasdaq and the broader market were headed for negative territory when trading opens. Meanwhile, Europe and Asia traded in quite opposite directions.

London's FTSE was up 48.2 to 5964.9 around the midpoint of its trading day. The previous day, the index closed at a depth unseen for the past 16 months. Financials, especially the banks and insurers, were up as traders speculate about a possible rate cut here in the States. Elsewhere on the continent, Germany's Xetra Dax gained 41.2 to 6230.3, while Paris' CAC-40 gained 26.9 to 5442.0.

Asia wasn't nearly as lovely, especially Tokyo's Nikkei 225, which has performed so badly that the Comp looks good by comparison. The Nikkei fell 141.3 to 13,059.9, dropping to a 28-month closing low as chipmakers slumped and banking stocks, the only real support to the index's upside movement, succumbed to profit-taking. That warning from Texas Instruments (TXN Quote) didn't help much, either.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 395.5 to 14,834.7.

Check out more international markets data on our global indices page.

For Monday's postclose trading, see The Night Watch.