Futures Tumble on Cisco's Weak Outlook
NEW YORK (
) -- Stock futures pointed lower Thursday as a weak outlook from
Cisco
(CSCO) - Get Report
late Wednesday raised concerns about the strength of tech spending.
Futures for the
Dow Jones Industrial Average
were down by 42 points, or 61 points below fair value, at 11,260. Futures for the
S&P 500
were 6 points lower, or 8 points below fair value, at 1208, and
Nasdaq
futures were down by 19 points, or 29 points below fair value.
Shares of
Cisco
(CSCO) - Get Report
were down 12.5% at $21.44 ahead of Thursday's opening bell. Although the networking equipment company narrowly beat analysts' profit expectations, it gave disappointing sales guidance.
Other technology companies were losing in early trading.
Microsoft's
(MSFT) - Get Report
stock was down 1.4% at $26.57, while
Oracle
(ORCL) - Get Report
was off by 2% at $28.13. Shares of
Juniper Networks
(JNPR) - Get Report
and
Altera
(ALTR) - Get Report
were down by more than 4%.
Stocks gained Wednesday as a better-than-expected decline in first-time jobless claims and a narrowing trade deficit overshadowed debt concerns in Europe.
Thursday marks the start of a
in Seoul, South Korea. Currency manipulation is expected to be a major topic at the meeting as several leaders of emerging-market countries have accused the United States of weakening the dollar through additional stimulus measures, thereby making their economies more vulnerable to inflation.
The dollar traded higher against a basket of currencies with the dollar index up by 0.3%.
China's strong financial standing prompted Moody's Investors Service to raise the country's debt rating by one notch to Aa3.
Overseas, Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.8% and Japan's Nikkei rose 0.3%. The FTSE in London was down by 0.09% and the DAX in Frankfurt was off by 0.03%.
There are no economic reports scheduled for release on Thursday and bond markets are closed for the Veterans Day holiday.
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Shares of
Viacom
(VIA.B)
were up 3.7% to $39.50 in early trading after the entertainment content company topped consensus estimates with adjusted profit of 75 cents a share. Sales increased 5% to $3.33 billion, meeting expectations.
Novartis
(NVS) - Get Report
saw shares shed 0.1% to $56.72 in early trading after it discontinued clinical trials for an investigational cancer drug. Novartis said the decision would result in a fourth-quarter charge of $120 million.
Aegon
(AEG) - Get Report
, a Dutch insurance company and bailout recipient, said earnings more than tripled in the third quarter as the value of some of its assets increased. Stronger sales, improved investment gains and a weak euro also helped the company. Aegon, which operates Transamerica, intends to pay the €1.5 billion in support it got from the Dutch state during the 2008 financial crisis by July 2011.
After Thursday's closing bell,
NVIDIA
(NVDA) - Get Report
,
Sunpower
( SPWRA) and
Walt Disney
(DIS) - Get Report
are slated to report per-share profits of 14 cents, 13 cents and 46 cents a share, respectively, according to Briefing.com.
In commodity markets, the January crude oil contract was adding 28 cents, to trade at $88.57 a barrel. The December gold contract was up by $10 to $1,409.30 an ounce.
--Written by Melinda Peer in New York
.
Disclosure: TheStreet's editorial policy prohibits staff editors and reporters from holding positions in any individual stocks.
