Stock Futures Point to Modest Gains for U.S.

MBIA drops 4.6% after losing $2.41 billion in the first quarter.
By Sarina Penn ,

Stock index future were pointing to a higher open Monday as traders looked to pick up equities following a selloff in the prior session.

S&P 500

futures were up 3.50 points to 1392.50 and were 4 points above fair value. Futures on the Nasdaq 100 were ticking up 1.50 points at 1965 and were about a point ahead of fair value.

Last time out, the broad indices took a slide after insurance titan

American International Group

(AIG) - Get Report

reported another big loss and crude oil reached a new high again.

At the end of the day, the

Dow Jones Industrial Average

had lost 121 points to 12,746, and the S&P 500 gave up 9 points to 1388. The

Nasdaq Composite

slipped 6 points to 2446.

First Coverage, a market-analysis firm, noted that last week's bad news, capped off by the AIG report, pulled down overall sentiment as financials once again bore the brunt of traders' resurfacing anxiety.

Before the opening bell,

MBIA

(MBI) - Get Report

dropped 4.6% after the beleaguered mortgage insurer lost $2.41 billion in the first quarter. The loss came as MBIA took a $3.6 billion hit in unrealized losses on insured derivatives.

Also swinging to a first-quarter loss was mortgage lender

IndyMac

(IMB)

. The firm, which lost $184.2 million, or $2.27 a share, warned that it won't achieve a profit until the plunge in housing prices eases up.

HSBC

(HBC)

was up 2.7% in the premarket, however, after saying first-quarter earnings climbed from last year, thanks to its success in emerging markets such as Asia. That came even as the Britain-based bank wrote down $2.6 billion in assets and doubled its loan-impairment charges.

Away from financials, after Friday's market close

FedEx

(FDX) - Get Report

said harsh economic conditions and climbing fuel prices have squeezed its bottom line, and the package-delivery outfit

slashed its current-quarter earnings forecast

.

Elsewhere, weekend reports said that

Cablevision

(CVC)

is closing in on a $650 million deal to buy Long Island newspaper Newsday, and that the merger could be announced as early as today. That came after Rupert Murdoch's

News Corp.

(NWS) - Get Report

had

retracted its own $580 million offer

for the paper.

As for commodities, crude oil was slipping 61 cents to $125.35 a barrel, and gold futures were off 90 cents to $884.90 an ounce. The U.S. dollar firmed by 0.2% against the euro to $1.5453 while jumping by 1% against the yen at 103.95.

Treasury prices were losing ground. The 10-year note was down 7/32 in price to yield 3.80%, and the 30-year bond fell 12/32 in price, yielding 4.55%.

Markets abroad were mixed. In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 added 0.6% overnight. Hong Kong was closed. Among European exchanges, the FTSE 100 in London, the Xetra Dax in Germany, and the Paris Cac were all up 0.4% or more.

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