Preopen Trading: DuPont Slips; European Indices Mixed
Premarket activity looked sleepy ahead of Thursday's trading session.
On
Instinet
,
Dupont
(DD) - Get DuPont de Nemours Inc. 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
TheStreet Recommends
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.
