General Electric, EchoStar announce Monday acquisitions
By Polya Lesova, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock futures were little changed Monday, as investors paused for breath after last week’s gains and awaited the release of President Barack Obama’s budget.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJH11 12,238, -3.00, -0.03%) slipped 4 points to 12,237 and S&P 500 futures (SPH11 1,326, -1.10, -0.08%) fell 1.40 points to 1,325.90.
Nasdaq 100 futures (NDH11 2,378, -0.50, -0.02%) were little changed at 2,378.
The blue-chip Dow industrials (DJIA 12,273, +43.97, +0.36%) rose Friday and posted a gain of 1.5% last week, as the resignation of Hosni Mubarak as president of Egypt reduced a perceived geopolitical risk, which had been weighing on investor sentiment.
In deal news, EchoStar Corp. (SATS 29.88, +0.13, +0.44%) agreed to acquire Hughes Communications Inc. (HUGH 59.01, -2.77, -4.48%) for about $2 billion including assumed debt.
Also Monday, Dow component General Electric Co. (GE 21.42, +0.09, +0.42%) said it will buy the well-support division of U.K. firm John Wood Group PLC (UK:WG. 649.50, +76.50, +13.36%) for about $2.8 billion. Shares of John Wood rallied more than 14% in London.
No major U.S. economic data are scheduled for release Monday, as the White House is scheduled to release its budget proposal for the 2012 fiscal year starting in October. The proposal forecasts that the deficit will rise to $1.6 trillion in 2011, up from $1.3 trillion in 2010, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a senior Democrat.
Overnight, Asian markets finished with strong gains. The Shanghai Composite index rallied 2.5%, as traders digested data showing a surge in both imports and exports in January.
In Tokyo, stocks also gained, with investors shrugging off figures showing that the Japanese economy contracted in the fourth quarter of 2010. The data mean China has officially passed Japan as the No. 2 global economy after the U.S. See more on Japanese data.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index (ST:STOXX600 288.89, +0.90, +0.31%) gained 0.3% in intraday trading.
On the corporate front, MGM Resorts International (MGM 15.54, -0.24, -1.52%) is due to report quarterly earnings before the market opens.
After the market closes, hotel operator Marriott International Inc. (MAR 41.22, +1.22, +3.05%) will release results.
In premarket trading, shares of Nokia Corp. (NOK 9.02, -0.34, -3.63%) fell nearly 4%, extending their decline from the previous session when the firm announced a broad partnership with Microsoft Corp. (MSFT 27.25, -0.25, -0.91%) . J.P. Morgan Cazenove downgraded Nokia to underweight from overweight, saying that “the degree to which the [Microsoft] deal is beneficial to Nokia is still unclear.”
Shares of Seahawk Drilling Inc. (HAWK 2.35, -5.55, -70.25%) tumbled 72% in thin premarket trading after the firm said late Friday it would file for bankruptcy protection and sell its assets to Hercules Offshore Inc. (HERO 3.74, +0.12, +3.32%) .
In commodities, oil futures were nearly flat at $85.57 a barrel in electronic trading on Globex.
And in currencies, the euro fell 0.7% to $1.3451, as European finance ministers prepared to meet in Brussels to discuss a comprehensive response to the euro zone’s sovereign-debt crisis.
The dollar index (DXY 78.73, +0.27, +0.34%) , which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of other major currencies, rose 0.4% to 78.759.
