Tuesday, June 29, 2010

U.S. Stocks Poised To Slide

Stock futures continued to point to a much lower open Tuesday on global economic fears.
Nasdaq 100 futures tumbled 26 points vs. fair value, S&P 500 futures dropped 15 points and Dow futures shed 102 points.
China's leading economic index rose only 0.3% in April — the smallest gain in three months and below the 1.7% gain initially reported two weeks ago.
Meanwhile, Japan's economic recovery slowed. The country's industrial production slipped 0.1% in May for the first decline in five months. And its unemployment rate surprisingly rose 5.2%, the third straight monthly gain.
In Greece, workers again walked off their jobs to protest austerity measures. The euro dropped to 1.2209 from 1.2276 late Monday.
Gold was off its earlier low, but still down 90 cents to $1,237.70 an ounce. Bonds jumped, pushing the yield down to 2.99%. It dropped below 3% for the first time since April 2009.
Domestically, the Case-Shiller home price index of 20 cities rose 3.8% in April, thanks to tax credits. Economists expected a gain of 3.4%.
The Conference Board consumer confidence index will be out at 10 a.m. EDT. Economists expect a reading of 62.0, down from May's 63.3.
In corporate news, Ctrip.com International (CTRP) dropped 9% in the pre-market on a downgrade. RBS cut the Chinese travel services provider to hold from buy. The stock cleared a 40.64 buy point from a cup-with-handle base June 14.
Micron Technology (MU) fell 6% in pre-open trading, despite Monday afternoon's upbeat results.
Google (GOOG) says it will stop redirecting users of google.cn to google.com.hk after the Chinese government threatened to not renew its Internet Content Provider license. Shares slipped 2% in pre-open trading.
Electric car maker Tesla (TSLA) comes public Tuesday. Earlier, the company priced 13.3 million shares at $17 apiece. That was above an expected range of $14 to $16.

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