5 Things You Should Know Before the Stock Market Opens

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- U.S. stock futures were pointing to a mixed open for Wall Street on Tuesday amid hopes for more stimulus measures from the world's central banks.

Stock markets in the U.S. will close Tuesday at 1 p.m. EDT and will be closed completely on Wednesday for the Independence Day holiday in the U.S.

European shares were rising while Asian stocks finished mostly with gains on Tuesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 index rose 0.7% to close at 9,066.59.

In the U.S. on Monday, stocks finished mixed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost nearly 9 points, or 0.07%, to close at 12,871.

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The economic calendar in the U.S. Tuesday includes factory orders for May at 10 a.m. EDT. Carmakers also will be releasing U.S. sales figures for June.

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Barclays (BCS) CEO Bob Diamond has resigned, the second official to step down at the bank in the wake of an alleged interest-rate rigging scandal.

Chairman Marcus Agius will lead the search for Diamond's replacement. Agius resigned Monday following the bank's $453 million settlement of an investigation into alleged interest rate manipulation.

Regulators in the U.S. and the U.K. alleged that Barclays had submitted false data for setting the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, between 2005 and 2009.

The Wall Street Journal, citing sources, reported Tuesday that Barclays Chief Operating Officer Jerry del Missier also is likely to step down.

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Microsoft (MSFT) announced plans Monday to record an asset impairment charge of $6.2 billion on its acquisition of aQuantive.

Microsoft's 2007 deal for aQuantive was valued at $6.3 billion.

The charge is to be recorded in the company's results for the fiscal fourth quarter that ended in June.

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Boeing (BA) predicted Tuesday airlines will buy 34,000 new airplanes over the next 20 years.

Boeing forecast that $4.5 trillion worth of planes will be sold, most in the Asia Pacific region on strong growth in markets like India and China.

Boeing last year predicted 33,500 new planes worth $4 trillion would be sold by 2030.

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-- Written by Joseph Woelfel



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