Stock Futures Point Higher on Earnings
NEW YORK (
) -- Stock futures pointed to a slightly higher open Monday as investors digested promising earnings reports.
Futures for the
Dow Jones Industrial Average
were up by 12 points, or 11 points above fair value, at 11,834. Futures for the
S&P 500
were higher by 2 points, or 2 points above fair value, at 1,282, and
Nasdaq
futures were ahead by 3 points, or 5 points above fair value.
Stocks saw a mixed close Friday despite strong earnings from
General Electric
(GE) - Get Report
.
With no economic releases scheduled, earnings are likely to dominate the spotlight on Monday.
Shares of
McDonald's
(MCD) - Get Report
were down 1.7% at $73.73 in early trading after the
company topped analysts' earnings estimates by a penny with a fourth-quarter profit of $1.16 a share, and met sales expectations with revenue of $6.21 billion.
Shares of
Halliburton
(HAL) - Get Report
were trading 1.1% higher at $39.60 ahead of Monday's opening bell as the
company reported fourth-quarter earnings of 68 cents a share on sales of $5.2 billion. Analysts had projected a profit of 63 cents a share on sales of $4.87 billion.
Shares of
RadioShack
(RSH)
were down 12% at $15.50 after the company said its Chairman and CEO Julian Day plans to retire in May. The company also announced preliminary fourth-quarter results, saying that it expects fourth-quarter earnings in the range of 50 to 54 cents a share on sales that rose 4% to $1.37 billion. According to
Briefing.com
, analysts had expected the company to report earnings of 67 cents a share on Feb. 22.
Shares of
Rock-Tenn
(RKT) - Get Report
were up 4.9% to $60 in early trading after the
packaging products company said it plans to buy
Smurfit-Store Container
(SSCC)
for $3.5 billion.
Novartis
(NVS) - Get Report
agreed to acquire
Genoptix
(GXDX)
for $25 a share, or $470 million. Shares of Novartis were trading 0.3% higher at $56.59 while Genoptix's stock was ahead by 25.4% at $24.77.
American Express
(AXP) - Get Report
is scheduled to report fourth-quarter earnings after the closing bell. According to
Briefing.com
, analysts anticipate a profit of 97 cents a share. The stock was trading 0.6% higher at $46.28 ahead of the opening bell.
In commodity markets, the March crude oil contract was trading 70 cents lower at $88.41 a barrel. The February gold contract was up by $7.30 to trade at $1,348.30 an ounce.
The dollar strengthened against a basket of currencies with the dollar index up by 0.3%. The benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell 2/32, lifting the yield to 3.416%.
.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 0.3% while Japan's Nikkei rose 0.7%. London's FTSE was adding 0.1% while the DAX in Frankfurt was down by 0.7%.
--Written by Melinda Peer in New York
.
Disclosure: TheStreet's editorial policy prohibits staff editors and reporters from holding positions in any individual stocks.
