Wall Street Set for Early Sluggishness

Futures point to a slightly lower open for the major averages.
By Sarina Penn ,

Stock index futures were foretelling a moderately lower open on Wall Street as traders moved cautiously following the prior session's upside finish.

S&P 500

futures were down 3 points to 1418 and were about a point below fair value. Futures on the Nasdaq 100 lost 6 points to 1993, and were nearly 3 points under fair value.

Last time out, investors managed to bring equity measures higher despite assorted downbeat news from the financial space, including a big loss at

Fannie Mae

(FNM)

, and a fresh record for oil prices.

In the end,

Dow Jones Industrial Average

overcame early losses to rise by 51 points to 13,021, and the S&P 500 added 11 points to 1418. The

Nasdaq Composite

was up 19 points to 2483.

After the prior close, tech bellwether

Cisco Systems

(CSCO) - Get Report

reported coming in ahead of analyst expectations last quarter with an adjusted profit of $2.3 billion, or 38 cents a share. Sales ramped up 10.4% to $9.8 billion. Still, shares were off 1.3% in the premarket.

Meanwhile, fellow tech names

Sprint

(S) - Get Report

and

Clearwire

(CLWR)

confirmed they are planning to merge their wireless broadband businesses.

The new company, to be named Clearwire, is set to receive a $3.2 billion collective investment from

Intel

(INTC) - Get Report

,

Google

(GOOG) - Get Report

,

Time Warner Cable

(TWC)

and Bright House Networks.

Elsewhere,

Disney

(DIS) - Get Report

shares added 2% early after the entertainment conglomerate said earnings leaped 22% to $1.1 billion. Per-share income handily beat expectations.

The economic docket features the Labor Department's preliminary nonfarm productivity numbers, due out at 8:30 a.m. EDT. Pending-home sales data should come out at 10 a.m. EDT, and the government's weekly crude stockpile report is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. EDT.

Commodity prices were slipping. Crude oil was down 30 cents at $121.54 a barrel early on. Gold futures were off $6 to $877.70 an ounce. The U.S. dollar climbed by 0.7% against both the euro and the yen.

Treasury prices were rising. The 10-year note was up 2/32 in price to yield 3.91%, and the 30-year bond rose 11/32 in price, yielding 4.64%.

Markets abroad were mostly higher. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 2.5% overnight, but Nikkei 225 in Tokyo climbed 0.4%. Among European bourses, London's FTSE 100 and the Paris Cac were both tacking on 0.6%. Germany's Xetra Dax was up 0.9%.

Loading ...