Stocks head toward lower open
NEW YORK -- Wall Street pointed toward a lower open Monday as investors prepared to extend the sharp losses from Friday, when worries about the credit and housing markets and disappointing corporate earnings came to a head.
Stock markets around the world, responding to the Dow Jones industrial average's 366-point plunge, tumbled Monday. In Asian trading, Japan's Nikkei stock average declined 2.24 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index dropped 3.7 percent. In European trading, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 1.21 percent, Germany's DAX index fell 1.29 percent, and France's CAC-40 fell 1.75 percent.
On Friday Ã¢â‚¬â€ť the 20-year anniversary of the Black Monday crash Ã¢â‚¬â€ť some blue chip companies gave disappointing profit outlooks for the rest of the year, and Standard & Poor's downgraded another series of mortgage-backed securities. Investors sold off stocks and bought up safer assets like U.S. Treasury bonds as the prospect of a thaw in the frozen credit markets grew dimmer.
Wall Street is hoping for more optimistic news from companies such as Merck & Co., Schering Plough and Hasbro Inc., which release quarterly results Monday morning. On Sunday, oilfield services company Halliburton Co. posted a 19 percent jump in third-quarter earnings, thanks to expanding business in the Eastern Hemisphere.
Dow futures dropped 122, or 0.90 percent, to 13,438. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 9.90, or 0.66 percent, to 1,495.90. Nasdaq 100 index futures sank 15.75, or 0.73 percent, to 2,134.00.
The Dow finished the week down 4.05 percent; the Standard & Poor's 500 index finished down 3.92 percent; and the Nasdaq composite index ended down 2.87 percent.
In economic data Monday, the Chicago Federal Reserve is scheduled to release its index of national business activity at 8:30 a.m. EDT. Meanwhile, investors will be listening to Fed Governor Randall Krozner, who is speaking in Washington about recent events in the financial markets.
Crude oil futures fell 87 cents to $87.73 a barrel in pre-opening trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The dollar was mixed against other major currencies. Gold fell.