Stock Futures Point to Early Decline
Wall Street was headed for a lower open Monday as prospects unraveled for a
Microsoft
(MSFT) - Get Report
tie-up with
Yahoo!
(YHOO)
.
S&P 500
futures were sliding 7 points to 1409 and were more than 5 points below fair value. Futures on the Nasdaq 100 were off 11 points to 1979 and were 8 points below fair value.
Over the weekend, Microsoft announced it had
on its months-long efforts to take out Yahoo!. The software maker said it was willing to sweeten its offer by some $5 billion, to $33 a share, but claimed Yahoo! wanted at least $5 billion more than that.
As for Microsoft's prior threats that it would go hostile if Yahoo! didn't accept its original bid, the company decided against that path, believing that Yahoo! would in that case try to make itself unattractive as a buyout target.
Yahoo! shares were plummeting 22.4% to $28.67. Microsoft added 5.2%.
Last time out, the major averages finished mixed. At the end of the day, the
Dow Jones Industrial Aveage
rose 48 points to 13,058, and the S&P 500 added 5 points to 1413. The
Nasdaq Composite
shed 4 points to 2477 amid miserable first-quarter results from
Sun Microsystems
(JAVA)
.
On the data side for the new session, the Institute for Supply Management is due to release its April services-sector survey at 10 a.m. EDT.
Among commodities, crude oil was rising 45 cents at $116.77 a barrel, and gold futures were gaining $10.60 to $868.60 an ounce.
Treasury prices were creeping higher. The 10-year note and the 30-year bond were each adding 4/32 in price to yield 3.84% and 4.57%, respectively.
Markets abroad were mixed. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slipped 0.2%. In Europe, Germany's Xetra Dax was off fractionally, and the Paris Cac edged down 0.2%. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 and London's FTSE 100 were each closed for a public holiday.