Stocks head to lower open as oil prices cross $90 a barrel
NEW YORK -- Wall Street tipped toward a lower open Friday as crude oil crossed $90 a barrel for the first time and heightened concerns that more expensive fuel will hurt both businesses and consumers.
Investors are being drawn to energy futures in part as a hedge against the weakening U.S. dollar. The greenback fell to a new low against the euro Thursday and also sagged against the yen.
On Friday, oil also moved higher on continued worries over tensions between Turkey and Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. A barrel of light, sweet crude passed $90 per barrel in European trading before retreating, and was last up 33 cents at $89.80 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Investors also looked toward another batch of earnings reports, including results from Caterpillar Inc., 3M Co. and Xerox Corp. Technology stocks moved higher before the opening bell after Google Inc. reported late Wednesday that third-quarter results toppled Wall Street expectations, and prompted a number of analyst upgrades.
Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 21.00, or 0.17 percent, to 13,919. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 4.10, or 0.27 percent, to 1,542.70. Nasdaq 100 index futures rose 8.25, or 0.37 percent, to 2,214.25.
Google -- whose shares closed at $639.62 Thursday -- is poised to move higher. The search engine leader said advertising spending lifted third-quarter profit by 46 percent.
Wachovia Corp. is expected to slide after it reported third-quarter profits fell 10 percent due to write-downs related to difficult credit market conditions. The nation's fourth largest bank also signaled increasing credit troubles ahead.
Caterpillar, one of the world's largest construction equipment makers, said its third-quarter earnings rose 21 percent as strength in its integrated service business offset weakness in North America. Results also topped Wall Street projections.
Xerox, the world's biggest supplier of office printers and copiers, also posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings. The company said equipment sales rose 14 percent from the year-ago period.
Meanwhile, Scotch tape and Post-It Notes maker 3M said quarterly profit jumped 7 percent on strong growth across all regions, but sales missed expectations. The company also raised its profit outlook for the full year.
With little in the way of economic news expected, investors will monitor what Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and St. Louis Fed President William Poole might say on a panel discussion at the bank's conference on monetary policy. The panel is set to begin at 9 a.m. EDT.
Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average closed down 1.71 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.11 percent, Germany's DAX index rose 0.02 percent, and France's CAC-40 added 0.01 percent.
Though futures indicate a lower open, that pales in comparison to what traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange had to contend with exactly 20 years ago. On Oct. 19, 1987 Ã¢â‚¬â€ť a day still known as Black Monday Ã¢â‚¬â€ť the Dow plunged 23 percent on concerns about interest rates and slowing economic growth.