By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch
Dec 7, 2005
U.S. stock futures edged slightly lower Wednesday as oil prices rose, with
General Motors a focus after naming a new chief financial officer and Cisco
Systems getting a broker upgrade after a meeting with analysts.
S&P 500 futures eased 1 point at 1,264.50 and Nasdaq 100 futures were down
0.5 a point at 1,704.0, with both indexes losing early gains.
U.S. markets finished below session highs on Tuesday, with the Dow
industrials rising 21.9 points at 10,856, the Nasdaq Composite rising 3.1
points at 2,260 and the S&P 500 rising 1.6 points at 1,263.
"This is the 'slump' ahead of the 'Santa Claus Rally,'" said Marc Pado, a
market strategist for Cantor Fitzgerald. "While I still believe in Santa, I
think he may have lost a little weight this year."
Front-month crude oil futures were recently up 41 cents at $60.35 a barrel
ahead of weekly U.S. inventory data, with markets expecting a decline in crude
oil inventories and a rise in gasoline and distillates supplies. Also in
commodity markets, gold futures reached a fresh 22-year high, at a peak of
$516.60 an ounce.
The dollar strengthened more against the euro than the Japanese yen, with
one euro recently worth $1.1710 and a dollar fetching 120.97 yen. There's
little economic data on the calendar for Wednesday.
Of companies in focus, General Motors late Tuesday tapped Frederick
"Fritz" Henderson, currently chairman of GM Europe, to take over for John
Devine as the automaker's chief financial officer and vice chairman.
Analysts from UBS said the market reaction could be cold to the move. "In
light of GM's recent performance, management changes are not a surprise,
though we believe this conservative, internal appointment could be met with
some disappointment," the brokers said.
In thin trade in Frankfurt, however, the stock edged up to $22.55 from a
$22.39 close on Tuesday.
Elsewhere, J.P. Morgan upgraded networking giant Cisco Systems Inc. to
overweight from neutral, following the company's annual analyst meeting and
after its acquisition of Scientific-Atlanta. Cisco shares advanced 1.4% in the
pre-open.
3M said George Buckley would be the company's new chairman, chief
executive and president, replacing Jim McNerney who left in July to lead
Boeing. He previously was CEO and chairman of Brunswick.
Microsoft Corp. was fined $32 million by a South Korean competition
regulator and forced to sell different versions of its Windows operating
system. The world's largest computer software maker said it'll appeal the
decision.
Separately, Microsoft and Google are both intensively negotiating to land
an ad deal with Time Warner Inc.'s AOL, The Wall Street Journal reported.
McClatchy Co. forecast fourth-quarter earnings of 98 cents and $1.00 per
share, and full year earnings to range from $3.45 to $3.47 per share,
excluding the litigation costs in the third-quarter related to the Star
Tribune. The current average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson First Call
is for a profit of $1 a share in the December quarter, and $3.46 a share for
the full year. It also forecast fiscal 2006 advertising revenues would grow in
the low-to-mid-single-digit range.
Dow Jones & Co. said that ad linage at its flagship publication The Wall
Street Journal rose 8.7% in November. The New York-based financial news
publisher noted that this figure reflects its Weekend Edition of the Journal,
which was launched in the U.S. in mid-September. The company attributed the
rise to increases in classified and general advertising, which offset declines
in financial and technology advertising. MarketWatch, the publisher of this
report, is a unit of Dow Jones.
Cumulus Media Inc. said its board added an additional $100 million to its
class A common stock buyback plan.
Overseas, the Nikkei 225 rebounded from Tuesday's losses to end higher,
and tepid gains were seen in Europe.
This MarketWatch news update is provided to you courtesy of Thomson
Financial.
This is Thomson Financial's Market Commentary, which is issued three times
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The information herein is believed to be true and accurate. We take no
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SOURCE Thomson Financial Corporate Group
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