Preopen Trading: Mixed Futures Mark Start of Election Day
Take the shades off, pal. The futures aren't
that
bright. They're mixed.
For those of you just emerging from under a rock, today is Election Day, a hustling, bustling time in which Americans flock to elementary school gymnasiums to vote for the next President of the United States. And ahead of today's heated contest, futures on the
Globex
exchange were lower.
As of 7 a.m. EST,
S&P 500 futures
were off 4 to 1142.5, 1.7 points above fair value as calculated by
Prudential Securities
.
Nasdaq 100 futures
were off 28 to 3303, about 11 points below fair value as calculated by
TheStreet.com
.
TheStreet Recommends
Cisco
(CSCO) - Get Cisco Systems Inc. Report
released earnings last night and beat the Street by a penny, the 15th straight time the company has beaten estimates by that margin. The night apparently still belongs to Michelob -- despite the good news, Cisco took a hit in
after-hours trading. This morning, Cisco was lower in preopen trading on
Instinet
, an electronic trading exchange that trades both before and after the bell, last at $54, down $1.13 from its New York close.
There's another mover on Instinet this morning, and not one that many people are used to hearing about.
ASM Lithography Holding
(ASML) - Get ASML Holding N.V. Report
, an advanced lithography projection system servicer and provider (an essential part of making modern integrated circuits) from the Netherlands, last traded at $28.25, 94 cents lower than its closing level in New York Monday. The reason? Monday, the U.S. government approved the company's merger with
Silicon Valley Group
( SVGI).
In economic news, investors can look forward to some retail figures and a treasury auction. At 8:30 a.m. EST, the
BTM-UBSW Weekly Chain Store Sales will be released, followed by the
Redbook Retail Average at 10 a.m. EST. Later in the afternoon, the results of the
Treasury's
five-year bond auction will be released. For more on economic data, check out
TheStreet.com's
Economic Databank.
European volume was anemic this morning as the folks across the pond sat on their hands and waited for American markets to open, concerned about how markets will react to today's election. The French and British markets were marginally higher, while the Germans took a hit. London's
FTSE 100
was up 10.9 to 6441.90, while Paris'
CAC-40
rose 1.79 to 6354.03. The
Xetra Dax
fell 87.27 to 7049.03.
In Asia, markets were split. The
Nikkei 225
stumbled 31.11 to 15,340.33, while Hong Kong's
Hang Seng
(say
that
10 times fast) gained 149.64 to 15,820.79.
