Futures Hit on Citigroup, GE

Stocks are lower as uneven earnings remain the rule.

Author:: Robert Holmes
Publish date:: Jan 20, 2006 7:32 AM EST

Stocks slipped Friday as traders looked askance on

Motorola's

(MOT)

fourth quarter and coped with misses at

Citigroup

and

General Electric

(GE) - Get Report

Index futures recently showed the

S&P 500

trading 4 points below fair value, while the Nasdaq 100 was set for an 8-point decline. The 10-year Treasury bond was unchanged in price to yield 4.37%, while the dollar rose against the euro and fell against the yen.

Overseas markets were mixed, with London's FTSE 100 recently down 0.4% to 5715 while Germany's Xetra DAX eased 0.3% to 5413. In Asia, Japanese stocks gave up early gains to finish roughly unchanged at 15,697, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.1% to 15,692.

Oil prices continued their upward push after geopolitical tensions were raised Thursday by the Osama bin Laden audio tape. February crude was recently up 35 cents to $67.18, near a three-month high. Natural gas rose 23 cents to $9.14 per million British thermal units.

Motorola was down 5% Friday after the company said second-quarter earnings rose 88% to $1.2 billion, or 47 cents a share, while sales jumped 18% to $10.43 billion. Adjusted for gains, Motorola earned 35 cents a share in the period, beating estimates by a penny. The company affirmed first-quarter guidance.

Investors were troubled by management commentary indicating Motorola experienced supply constraints in its handset business toward the end of the year. "That will not be a problem" in the future, CEO Ed Zander vowed on a conference call with analysts. In premarket trading,

Nokia

(NOK) - Get Report

was down about 2% in sympathy with Motorola.

Early Friday,

Citigroup

said fourth-quarter earnings jumped 30% thanks to the sale of its asset-management division to

Legg Mason

(LM) - Get Report

. Excluding the gain, Citi earned 98 cents a share, 2 cents shy of estimates. Domestic credit cards were a sore spot.

To view David Peltier's video take on today's premarket action, click here

General Electric

(GE) - Get Report

said fourth-quarter earnings from continuing operations were $5.77 billion, or 55 cents a share, matching estimates. Revenue rose 3% from a year ago to $40.7 billion, about $1.8 billion below forecasts.