MW: U.S. stock futures stagnant with confidence, earnings ahead
By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stock futures pointed to a stagnant start Tuesday as the market searches for a new spark after a series of strong earnings releases.
Wobbling throughout the morning, S&P 500 futures rose 1.5 points to 1,067.90 and Nasdaq 100 futures rose three-quarters of a point to 1,748.70. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 15 points.
U.S. stocks dropped hard for a second straight session on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average retreating 104 points, the S&P 500 fell 13 points and the Nasdaq Composite retreating 13 points.
Concerns over how much Bank of America may have to raise in capital, the potential elimination of the first-time home buyer tax credit and a possible Federal Reserve interest-rate language change were among the many factors cited for the downturn in the market.
"A clear sign that the market has yet to fully emerge from its crisis-type trading mode was the shift into full risk aversion bias [Monday], which had all the typical hallmarks of the risk cycles witnessed during the 24 months: a sharp decline in equities, accompanied by a sharp rise in yields, strengthening funding currencies, a sell-off in risk currencies as well as oil, while gold retained its negative relationship with the dollar and declined," said Michael Hart, a currency strategist at Citi.
The economic docket picks up a bit on Tuesday as the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index for August, and the Conference Board's October consumer confidence reading due for release. The Treasury will sell $44 billion in two-year notes.
As earnings season continued, BP /quotes/comstock/13*!bp/quotes/nls/bp (BP 55.48, +0.06, +0.11%) rose 5% in pre-market trade as the oil giant reported a less-than-forecast 34% drop in third-quarter profit.
Baidu /quotes/comstock/15*!bidu/quotes/nls/bidu (BIDU 432.97, -2.34, -0.54%) dropped 14% after a disappointing revenue outlook from the Chinese search engine provider.
Hertz /quotes/comstock/13*!htz/quotes/nls/htz (HTZ 9.62, -0.41, -4.09%) rallied 25% on an increase in 2009 guidance.
Overseas, the Nikkei 225 dropped 1.4% in Tokyo while the pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 rose 0.6%.
Oil futures traded above $79 a barrel, while gold futures slipped modestly.
