U.S. futures fall ahead of Bernanke testimony
NEW YORK — U.S. stock futures fell sharply Tuesday ahead of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's testimony before Congress on the outlook for the U.S. economy.
Stocks fell broadly a day earlier after Greece said it will not be able to make budget cuts it agreed to as part of a deal to receive emergency loans. That raised new concerns about the strength of Europe's financial system. A default by Greece could result in a freeze-up in the credit system, potentially pushing the slow-growing U.S. economy into a recession.
Monday's declines sent the benchmark S&P 500 index to the edge of a bear market — a 20 percent decline from its recent high.
At 8:30 a.m. EST Tuesday, Dow Jones industrial average futures were down 112 points, or 1.1 percent, to 10,417. S&P 500 futures lost 13, or 1.2 percent, to 1,073. Nasdaq 100 futures slid 21, or 1 percent, to 2,044.
Many investors will be looking toward Bernanke's testimony before Congress on the prospects for the U.S. economy. Last week, Bernanke suggested that Congress take further action to combat unemployment, which he called a "national crisis." Economists on Wall Street expect Friday's employment report to show that the unemployment rate remained at 9.1 percent in September.
The Census Bureau will release its report on August factory orders at 10 a.m. Eastern.
In corporate news, Apple Inc. is widely expected to announce the newest version of its iPhone Tuesday. Tim Cook, who took over the company's CEO role from co-founder Steve Jobs in August, is expected to unveil the new smartphone at Apple's Cupertino headquarters. The company lost 0.4 percent in premarket trading.
Bank of America Corp. lost 1.8 percent in premarket trading as investors continued to be troubled by its exposure to soured mortgages securities and a several-day outage of its website. The company's stock lost 9 percent Monday to $5.53, a level not seen since 2009.
European indexes also declined sharply. Benchmark indexes in Germany, France, and Spain each lost more than 3 percent.