Kraft Foods, Sprint Nextel, PepsiCo all due to report earnings
By Simon Kennedy, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock futures pointed lower Thursday after heavy losses for many Asian and European markets and as investors weighed earnings from the likes of Sprint Nextel Corp. and PepsiCo Inc.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJH11 12,153, -54.00, -0.44%) dropped 44 points to 12,163.00, and S&P 500 futures (SPH11 1,312, -7.00, -0.53%) were down 6.70 points at 1,312.50.
Futures on the technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NDH11 2,343, -19.25, -0.82%) fell 18.25 points to 2,344.00, with shares in Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO 19.75, -2.29, -10.39%) slumping more than 9% in the premarket as investors showed their disappointment with the networking giant’s outlook and margins.
Also among the blue chips, Kraft Foods (KFT 31.24, +0.11, +0.35%) may see active trading. The company’s expected to report fourth-quarter earnings of 47 cents a share.
The benchmarks tracking U.S. stocks ended mixed on Wednesday as a late rally pushed the Dow industrials (DJIA 12,240, +6.74, +0.06%) higher for the eighth session in a row, while downbeat comments from Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke weighed on other indexes.
Thursday’s moves likely represent “money being taken off the table after a very strong run,” said Manoj Ladwa, senior trader at ETX Capital.
They also followed a weak performance in Europe and Asia.
European stock markets were lower across the board Thursday, with banks leading the pullback. Spain’s IBEX 35 index was the worst performer, losing over 2%.
Asian markets also closed mostly lower, including a 2.1% drop for the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong on worries about Chinese policy tightening, with energy stocks among the most heavily sold.
Investors await weekly U.S. jobless-claims data, due at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time, with economists expecting first-time filings to dip slightly to 410,000 from 415,000.
The dollar strengthened, rising 0.5% against the yen to ¥82.80, while the euro dropped to $1.3627.
Among other stocks in Thursday’s focus, shares of Sprint Nextel (S 4.59, +0.24, +5.52%) rose around 3% in premarket trading after the company reported a narrower fourth-quarter loss.
PepsiCo (PEP 63.10, -1.32, -2.05%) was down 1.7% ahead of the open after the company said it faces headwinds from high unemployment, cost inflation and a potentially tough competitive pricing environment.
Shares of Whole Foods Market Inc. (WFMI 58.12, +4.37, +8.13%) were another big mover in premarket trading, rallying nearly 10% after the grocer lifted its 2011 forecasts for profit and sales.
Alcatel-Lucent (ALU 4.15, +0.59, +16.57%) rose 16% in premarket trading after the telecom-equipment group reported soaring fourth-quarter profit on rising demand for broadband networks.
In other news, executives at Google Inc. (GOOG 615.00, -1.50, -0.24%) , Facebook Inc. and other firms have held low-level talks with Twitter Inc. over a possible acquisition, with some potential suitors valuing the business in the neighborhood of $8 billion to $10 billion, according to a Wall Street Journal report that cited people familiar with the matter.
Shares of Credit Suisse Group AG (CS 43.84, -2.80, -6.00%) (CH:CSGN 42.34, -2.36, -5.28%) slumped 5.6% in Swiss trading, leading European banks lower after the group cut a key profitability target, saying tougher capital requirements globally are changing the trading environment for all banks.
