U.S. Stock Futures Point to a Downside Open
Updated from 6:47 a.m. EST
Premarket futures were indicating a lower open for stocks on Wall Street in an abbreviated Friday trading session as traders looked to book profits from recent rallies.
Investors will be watching closely the retailers as shoppers flocked to stores to kick off the winter shopping season. In an annual ritual known as "
Black Friday
," stores attempt to lure customers, many of whom have the day off for Thanksgiving weekend, into their stores with preliminary holiday sales.
Futures for the
S&P 500
were down 10 points at 879 and were 7.5 points below fair value.
Nasdaq
futures were lower by 12 points at 1181 and were 12 points short of fair value. Stock markets in the U.S. close at 1 p.m. EST.
On Wednesday, the three major indices rallied in the face of numerous discouraging economic reports. During that session, President-elect Barack Obama named to his economic team former
Federal Reserve
Chairman Paul Volcker. The upside finish marked the fourth straight day of gains for the
Dow Jones Industrial Average
and the S&P 500.
U.S. markets were closed on Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Ahead of Friday's trading session, the
Royal Bank of Scotland
(RBS) - Get Report
said the British government would take a 58% stake in the bank following tepid reception of a stock offering by the company.
Meanwhile,
General Motors
(GM) - Get Report
has hired a real estate company to help it raise up to $257 million in sales and other deals related to its European offices and assets, according to a report by the
Financial Times
.
On the pharmaceutical front, antitrust investigators from the European Union said that
Pfizer
(PFE) - Get Report
,
GlaxoSmithKline
(GSK) - Get Report
and
Sanofi-Aventis
(SNY) - Get Report
blocked generic drugs from the market, costing European patients as much as $3.87 billion.
Elsewhere among pharma firms,
AstraZeneca
(AZN) - Get Report
faces delays for its infant lung drug Motavizumab thanks to inquiries by the Food and Drug Administration.
Eli Lilly
(LLY) - Get Report
, meanwhile, said it has withdrawn a new-drug application with the FDA for its pain medication Cymbalta.
Although the day was light on domestic economic data, there were additional signs of trouble abroad Friday. The European Union's statistics office said that inflation in the Eurozone for November came in at 2.1%, down from 3.2% in October. The EU also said that unemployment in the region had reached 7. 7% in October, a 0.1% increase from September.
As for analyst actions, online auctioneer
eBay
(EBAY) - Get Report
caught an Argus downgrade to hold from buy.
Looking at commodities, crude oil was shedding 71 cents to $53.73 a barrel. Gold was gaining $2.60 to $813.90 an ounce.
Longer-dated U.S. Treasury securities were rising in price. The 10-year note was adding 2/32 to yield 2.97%, and the 30-year was up 8/32, yielding 3.51%. The dollar was gaining on the euro, yen and pound.
Overseas, European exchanges such as the FTSE in London and the DAX in Frankfurt were trading lower. In
, Japan's Nikkei and Hong Kong's Hang Seng finished with gains.
