Futures Creep Tentatively Toward Green as Open Approaches

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. ...