Futures Point to Lower Wall Street Open
Premarket futures were suggesting a lower open for Wall Street Tuesday, as investors geared up to take profits from a sharp two-day rally and ahead of the release of third-quarter gross domestic product data.
Futures for the
S&P 500
were down 2.2 points at 846, and were trading 4.8 below fair value.
Nasdaq
futures were lower by 6.3 points at 1141, and were 14 short of fair value.
On Monday, stocks rallied sharply on news of a government bailout for
Citigroup
(C) - Get Citigroup Inc. Report
, whose subprime exposure and off-balance-sheet assets had left investors uncertain about its future. The government's guarantee of more than $300 billion in Citi debt and $20 billion equity investment in the firm sent the company's shares, along with the major indices, rocketing higher.
Ahead of the new day's trading, other financial firms were looking to get government help of a different sort.
Goldman Sachs
(GS) - Get Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (The) Report
garnered strong interest in a government-backed issuance of $2 billion to $3 billion in bonds, according to a report by
the Wall Street Journal
. The sale is expected to conclude Tuesday, and Citi and
TheStreet Recommends
General Electric
(GE) - Get General Electric Company Report
are expected to stage similar government-assisted bond sales.
Meanwhile, reports indicate that
Treasury
Secretary Henry Paulson and
Federal Reserve
Chairman Ben Bernanke were planning to use funds from the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program to aid the consumer-financing segment of the economy.
In earnings news, computer systems maker and
Dow Jones Industrial Average
component
Hewlett-Packard
delivered earnings that beat estimates on the top line but saw profit decline slightly year over year.
Mining concern
BHP Billiton
(BHP) - Get BHP Group Limited American Depositary Shares (Each representing two) Report
dropped a hostile takeover bid for
Rio Tinto
(RTP) - Get Reinvent Technology Partners Class A Report
on a sharp decline in commodity prices and tough credit conditions.
As for the day's economic data, preliminary third-quarter GDP figures from the Bureau of Economic Analysis are due out, as is the Conference Board's November consumer confidence survey.
Moving on to commodities, crude oil was losing $2.31 to $52.19 a barrel. Gold was shedding $11.40 to $809 an ounce.
Longer-dated U.S. Treasury securities were rising in price. The 10-year was up 28/32, yielding 3.22%. The 30-year was gaining 2-6/32 to yield 3.67%. The dollar was gaining on the euro and pound but slipping vs. the yen.
Overseas, Euorpean exchanges were mixed. The FTSE in London was edging higher, while the DAX in Frankfurt was taking losses. Asian markets, including Japan's Nikkei and Hong Kong's Hang Seng, finished on the upside.
