U.S. Stocks Head for Hesitant Open
Stock index futures were pointing to a virtually flat open Monday as traders appeared hesitant to move following a recovery in the prior session.
Futures on the
S&P 500
were down about a point at 1425, and were a point under fair value. Nasdaq 100 futures were flat at 2035.50 and were roughly a half-point above fair value.
Last time out, stocks clawed their way up from big early losses despite a day replete with bad news, and blue chips finished about where they started. At the end of the day Friday, the
Dow Jones Industrial Average
dipped 6 points to 12,987, and the S&P 500 ticked up 2 points to 1425. The
Nasdaq Composite
, however, finished off 5 points at 2529.
On the corporate front,
Microsoft
(MSFT) - Get Report
, which earlier this month dropped its attempts to take out
Yahoo!
(YHOO)
, over the weekend presented the Internet-portal operator with a
new deal
that would not constitute an outright acquisition. The software giant added, however, that it "reserves the right to reconsider" another buyout offer.
The development comes amid billionaire investor Carl Icahn's looming threat to nominate 10 people to Yahoo!'s board. Icahn recently began amassing large amounts of Yahoo! shares, saying the company acted "irrationally" in turning down Microsoft's sweetened takeout bid earlier this month. Microsoft was down 0.4% in recent premarket trading, while Yahoo! was roughly flat.
American Axle Manufacturing
(AXL) - Get Report
last Friday
with the United Autoworkers that would end a costly strike. American Axle is a key supplier to supplier to automaker
General Motors
(GM) - Get Report
, shares of which were up more than 1% in early trading.
In earnings, home-improvement retailer
Lowe's
(LOW) - Get Report
said early Monday its first-quarter profit plunged 17.9% to $607 million, or 41 cents a share, a penny better than the average analyst estimate from Thomson Reuters. Same-store sales, or those from stores open a year or more, slid 8.4%. Shares were down 2% in premarket trading.
On the data side, at 10:00 a.m. EDT the Conference Board is scheduled to issue April's leading indicators, a collection of mostly previously released economic data.
As for commodities, crude oil was rising 43 cents to $126.63 a barrel, and gold futures were up $13.30 at $913.20 an ounce. The U.S. dollar weakened against both the euro and the yen.
Treasury prices were creeping higher. The 10-year note was up 1/32 in price to yield 3.84%, and the 30-year bond climbed 5/32 in price, yielding 4.56%.
Markets abroad were mostly rising. In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 added 0.4% overnight, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was ahead by 0.5%. Among European bourses, the FTSE 100 in London and Germany's Xetra Dax tacked on 0.2% and 0.5%, respectively. The Paris Cac gained 0.3%.
This article was written by a staff member of TheStreet.com.