U.S. Stocks Seen Lower; Earnings Take the Stage

Earnings from industrial companies and regional banks are the focus on Tuesday.

Author:: Mike Taylor
Publish date:: Oct 21, 2008 7:04 AM EDT

Premarket futures were hinting at a lower open for stocks on Wall Street Tuesday, as traders prepared to pick through a generous serving of corporate earnings statements.

Futures for the

S&P 500

were down 8.7 points at 982 and were 4.6 short of fair value.

Nasdaq

futures were lower by 21 points at 1339 and were 19 below fair value.

On Monday, the major indices rallied sharply as credit markets opened up somewhat and

Federal Reserve

Chairman Ben Bernanke said an economic stimulus package may be a good idea.

After the close of that session, credit card firm

American Express

(AXP) - Get Report

reported earnings that fell year over year but still beat analysts' expectations.

Meanwhile,

Texas Instruments

(TXN) - Get Report

said it foresaw weak sales in the next six months and said it plans to sell its cell-phone chip business.

Ahead of the new day's trading, industrial conglomerate

(MMM) - Get Report

and equipment manufacturer

Caterpillar

(CAT) - Get Report

are expected to report.

DuPont

(DD) - Get Report

reported Tuesday third-quarter earnings that fell from a year earlier because of hurricane-related charges.

Defense company

Lockheed Martin

(LMT) - Get Report

and United Airlines parent

UAL

(UAUA)

are also on the docket.

Also due out are results from regional banks

Fifth Third

(FITB) - Get Report

National City

(NCC)

US Bancorp

(USB) - Get Report

and

M&T

(MTB) - Get Report

As for the automakers,

the Wall Street Journal

reported that

Chrysler

might partner with

Nissan

(NSANY)

and

Renault

for purposes of manufacturing and development. The

Journal

said that Chrysler would still prefer to merge with

General Motors

(GM) - Get Report

Looking at commodities, crude oil was declining 44 cents to $73.81 a barrel, and gold was down $8.40 to $781.60 an ounce.

Longer-dated U.S. Treasury securities were declining in price. The 10-year was down 2/32 to yield 3.85%, and the 30-year was losing 12/32, yielding 4.28%. The dollar was gaining on the euro and pound but shrinking vs. the yen.

Overseas, European exchanges such as the FTSE in London and the DAX in Frankfurt were trading higher. As for Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed on the upside, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng finished with losses.