Stocks Slip Amid Retail Crush
Stocks eased early Thursday as traders weighed more legal headaches for
Merck
(MRK) - Get Free Report
and hunkered down for a major helping of chain store sales.
Index futures recently showed the
trading a point below fair value, while the Nasdaq 100 was set for a 1.5-point decline. The 10-year Treasury bond was off 6/32 in price to yield 4.87%, while the dollar fell against the yen and euro.
Merck was down 3% late Wednesday after a jury in New Jersey awarded $4.5 million in damages to a man who claimed Vioxx caused his heart attack. Another man's claims were rejected. The verdict is the first in litigation where plaintiffs took Vioxx for more than 18 months, the period after which Merck has acknowledged safety issues.
U.S. retailers are reporting results for March, with expectations tempered after
Wal-Mart
(WMT) - Get Free Report
reported a paltry 1.3% rise in same-store sales on Saturday. The shift of Easter into April is expected to be a negative factor.
Teen retailers
Hot Topic
(HOTT)
and
Aeropostale
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reported lower same-store sales late Wednesday.
Thursday's economic calendar consists of initial jobless claims for last week, the last big piece of evidence before Friday's report on March employment. Economists are looking for a 300,000-person rise in first-time benefit applications at 8:30 a.m. EDT, and a gain of 190,000 new jobs in tomorrow's payroll report.
Energy prices continued to trend higher after the Energy Department reported a steep decline in gasoline inventories Wednesday morning. In electronic Nymex trading, May crude was recently up 60 cents to $67.67 a barrel, while gasoline futures added 3 cents to $1.98 a gallon.
Overseas markets were mixed, with London's FTSE 100 adding 0.1% to 6053 and Germany's Xetra DAX losing 0.1% to 6024. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei rose 1.4% overnight to 17,489, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 1.9% to 16,411.
To view David Peltier's video take on today's premarket action, click here
.
U.S. stocks had a second solid session on Wednesday, as
Apple's
(AAPL) - Get Free Report
10% jump paced the tech sector. Since Monday, the
Dow
is up 0.8%, the S&P 500 is up 1.1% and the
Nasdaq Composite
is up 1%.
Among companies,
Bed Bath & Beyond
(BBBY) - Get Free Report
said fourth-quarter earnings rose 9% from a year ago to $197.9 million, or 67 cents a share, beating estimates by 2 cents. Sales of $1.69 billion were also stronger than expected.
Security software provider
Websense
(WBSN)
guided first-quarter sales lower Wednesday. The company expects to post $42.3 million to $42.5 million on the top line; analysts were looking for $43.1 million.
Research in Motion
(RIMM)
will report fourth-quarter results after the bell. Analysts are looking for earnings of 67 cents a share on sales of $567 million.
In early research, Bank of America lowered
Warner Music
(WMG) - Get Free Report
to neutral from buy, citing a 40%-plus runup in the shares since the end of October.
