News at a Glance
Mixed Markets: Dow futures down; S&P, Nasdaq steady.
Banks Up: Bank stocks lead European markets higher.
Oil Bump: Crude futures top $71 in Asian trading.
Dollar Thumped: Greenback hit as China seeks new currency.
The Lowdown
Stocks look poised for a flat open Friday, capping a bumpy week on Wall Street.
Shortly after 7 a.m., Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 futures were trading a bit before fair value. Stocks bounced back on Thursday after declining for most of the week, as bargain-hunting lifted each of the major indexes more than 2%. Investors sought cheap shares of homebuilders, techs, consumer goods and commodities firms whose prices had been depressed by the recent selloff.
In Europe, the broader markets rose Friday with banks, including HSBC (HBC), BNP Paribas (BNP) and Credit Suisse (CS). Asian markets also saw gains.
Crude oil prices topped $71 a barrel in Asian trading Friday, as investors responded to mixed signs about the economy. Fear of further interference from Nigerian militants with the country's oil installations after Thursday's attack on a Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A) pipeline also drove the price increase. Shortly before 6 a.m., crude traded up 94 cents at $71.17.
The dollar is on track for its biggest weakly loss against the euro in a month. It fell Friday, as China sought a new currency.
Corporate News
UBS (UBS) raised about $3.5 billion by selling shares to boost capital and said it expects a second-quarter loss. The European bank with the biggest credit-crisis losses announced it sold the 293.3 million shares to a “small number of institutional investors” in order to boost confidence.
Japanese authorities ordered Citigroup (C) to suspend all sales operations at its retail banking arm for a month after the company failed to take steps to curb money laundering. This is the second time in five weeks that the Financial Services Agency has cited Citi for inadequate oversight of possibly criminal transactions. Citibank is a relatively small player in the Japanese consumer market. It will suspend sales from July 15 through August 14.
Qantas Airways said Friday it has cancelled delivery of 15 of Boeing (BA) 787 Dreamliner aircraft and deferred orders for another 15. The Australian carrier cited a dramatically changed operating climate and said the cancellation would save it about $3 billion. Earlier in the week, Boeing said it had again postponed the maiden flight of the Dreamliner again after having pushed it back by two years.
The Economy
The Commerce Department is scheduled to announce May personal income and consumption figures at 8:30 a.m. Friday. Analysts expect personal income to have risen 0.2%, compared to a 0.5% increase in April. Spending is expected to have risen 0.3%, compared to April's decline of 0.1%. The PCE deflator, the a measure of inflation, is expected to have risen 0.1%, compared to an increase of 0.3% in April.
The University of Michigan is scheduled to release revised June figures for the Reuters/University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment at 9:55 a.m. Analysts forecast an index value of 68.8, down slightly from the June preliminary estimate of 69, but up from 68.7 in May.
