U.S. Stock Futures Drop on Recession Fears
Premarket futures were hinting at a lower open for U.S. stocks Monday as traders continued to worry about the extent and duration of a potential global recession.
Futures for the
S&P 500
were down 30 points at 836 and were 40 below fair value.
Nasdaq
futures were down 33 points at 1158 and were 47 short of fair value.
On Friday, stocks closed on the downside as funds continued a forced liquidation of their investments and traders grappled with growing fears of a worldwide economic downturn.
Ahead of Monday's session, the
Financial Times
Web site reported that
Goldman Sachs
(GS) - Get Report
chief Lloyd Blankfein approached
Citigroup
(C) - Get Report
head Vikram Pandit about a merger. Pandit turned down the proposal, which was made in September, the report said.
The state of the U.S. automakers was once again looking precarious.
Bloomberg
reported that
General Motors
(GM) - Get Report
requested support from the
Treasury Department
to help it merge with
Chrysler
.
As for corporate earnings, telecom services provider
Verizon
(VZ) - Get Report
is slated to report before trading begins.
Looking at the day's economic data, the Census Bureau is expected to roll out its new home sales figures for September.
In the realm of commodities, crude oil was losing $2.11 to $62.04 a barrel. Gold was giving back $14.20 to $716.10 an ounce.
Longer-dated U.S. Treasury securities were rising in price. The 10-year was up 20/32 to yield 3.61%, and the 30-year was gaining 1-4/32, yielding 4.01%.
The dollar was continuing the wild swings seen on Friday, making big gains against the euro and pound but taking sharp losses vs the yen.. The euro was down 1.3% to $1.24, and the pound was plummeting 3.3% to $1.53. Against the yen, the dollar was sliding 2.1%.
Abroad, European exchanges, including the FTSE in London and the DAX in Frankfurt, were taking heavy losses. Asian markets, such as Japan's Nikkei and Hong Kong's Hang Seng, closed on the downside.
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