LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stock futures broke their holding pattern to edge slightly lower Thursday after banking giant Goldman Sachs reported results that shattered consensus estimates but not whisper numbers. Goldman (GS 187.85, -4.43, -2.30%) said its third-quarter profit rose to $3.19 billion, or $5.25 a share, from $810 million, or $1.81 a share a year ago, beating analyst estimates by over $1 a share. But analysts said talk of an even higher earnings figure for Goldman following the stock's strong run in recent weeks likely left room for weakness despite the strong figures. Shares were down by more than 2% in pre-market trade. S&P 500 futures fell 2.9 points to 1,084.80, while Nasdaq 100 futures slipped 5.75 points to 1,7412. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 15 points. Earlier, indexes were little changed after mobile-phone giant Nokia (NOK 13.82, -1.57, -10.20%) (FI:NOK1V 10.30, +0.28, +2.79%) swung to a third-quarter loss and said it expects 2009 phone volumes to drop by an upwardly revised 7% across the mobile industry. The company had previously forecast a 10% decline. See full story. The declines came a session after the Dow Jones Industrial Average passed the 10,000 mark for the first time in over a year, helped by upbeat earnings from Intel and J.P. Morgan Chase. Analysts have pointed to a wave of generally positive economic data, as well as stronger-than-forecast corporate profits for the gains in markets. "You've got a double whammy of economic data globally that's better than expected, plus the U.S. earnings reports beating expectations," said UBS Head of Institutional Sales George Kanaan. "Profit news has been supportive to the market," added strategists at MF Global, pointing to the technology sector in particular. Elsewhere, chip maker Xilinx (XLNX 23.36, -0.64, -2.67%) late Wednesday reported a 21% profit drop but predicted revenue for the current quarter will top Wall Street estimates and lifted its dividend by 14%. Still to come are releases from Citigroup (C 4.85, -0.15, -3.00%) , Harley-Davidson (HOG 25.61, -0.65, -2.48%) , and after the close, IBM (IBM 128.09, -0.26, -0.20%) and Google (GOOG 534.90, -0.42, -0.08%) . The economics docket is nearly as loaded: releases on U.S. consumer prices for September, New York- and Philadelphia-area regional surveys from the Fed in October, weekly jobless claims and weekly oil inventories all are due for release. There was activity on the mergers front as well, with Xstrata pulling out of a $98 billion merger proposal with Anglo American, a group of Tandberg shareholders rejecting Cisco's (CSCO 24.26, -0.12, -0.49%) $3 billion offer, and Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD 49.21, -0.34, -0.69%) reaching a deal to sell its Central Europe operations for up to $3 billion. Lazard (LAZ 40.80, -50.77, -55.44%) also will be in the spotlight on the death of chairman and chief executive Bruce Wasserstein, who only was admitted to the hospital over the weekend. Steven Golub will become interim chief executive. Asian stocks climbed on the Dow 10,000 mark, with the Nikkei 225 rising 1.8% in Tokyo. The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 added 0.4%, while the dollar rose vs. the Japanese yen. Oil futures gave up earlier gains to slip 24 cents to $74.94 a barrel, while gold futures and U.S. government bonds declined.

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