Preopen Trading: DuPont Slips; European Indices Mixed

Premarket activity looked sleepy ahead of Thursday's trading session.

On

Instinet

,

Dupont

(DD) - Get Report

slipped $4.50 to $42.50, down from yesterday's closing price of $47. The chemical giant warned investors that it has scaled back its fiscal 2000 EPS estimates between $2.85 and $2.95 a share, falling below the 16-analyst estimate of a $3.01 profit. DuPont blamed higher energy and raw material costs for downward revision.

Stocks are set to head higher at the opening bell. The

S&P 500 futures on

Globex

lately were up 3.50 to 1497.50, about 4 points above fair value as calculated by

Prudential Securities

. Fair value is a good gauge of how stocks will perform in the early going.

The thinly traded

Nasdaq 100

futures were up 7.50 to 3865.50, about 22 points above fair value, as calculated by

TheStreet.com

, and indicating that tech stocks are poised to open to the upside.

By the midday mark, Europe's major indices were mixed, with France's

CAC-40

up 0.15%, Germany's

Xetra Dax

off 0.2% and the U.K.'s

FTSE 100

down 0.2%. Japan's

Nikkei 225

lost 0.6% during its trading session, while Hong Kong's

Hang Seng

slipped 0.9% (see today's

Asian Markets Update for more).

For Wednesday's postclose trading, see The Night Watch.