U.S. Stocks Seen Lower; Earnings Take the Stage
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
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
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 Free Report
reported earnings that fell year over year but still beat analysts' expectations.
Meanwhile,
Texas Instruments
(TXN) - Get Free 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
3M
(MMM) - Get Free Report
and equipment manufacturer
Caterpillar
(CAT) - Get Free Report
are expected to report.
DuPont
(DD) - Get Free Report
reported Tuesday third-quarter earnings that fell from a year earlier because of hurricane-related charges.
Defense company
Lockheed Martin
(LMT) - Get Free Report
and United Airlines parent
UAL
(UAUA)
are also on the docket.
Also due out are results from regional banks
Fifth Third
(FITB) - Get Free Report
,
National City
(NCC)
,
US Bancorp
(USB) - Get Free Report
and
M&T
(MTB) - Get Free 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 Free 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.
