Filed under: Before the bell, Earnings reports, Forecasts, Deals, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Coca-Cola (KO), Market matters, US Airways Group (LCC), Economic data, Housing
U.S. stock futures were blended to lower early Friday morning as investors awaited data on inflation. News about companies slicing workforce and Yahoo!’s failed talks with Microsoft also soured the mood.
On Thursday, U.S. stocks shut with gains following a surprisingly strong retail sales, but the gains were tempered as the day went on due to rising oil prices and the Yahoo! announcement about the failed Microsoft talks.The Dow industrials ended 57 points, or 0.48%, higher, the S&P 500 rose 4 points, or 0.33%, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 10 points, or 0.43%.
What might yet change the atmosphere on Wall Street is the Consumer Price Index is scheduled for release at 8:30 a.m. EDT. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com anticipate CPI to show an increase of 0.5% in May following a 0.2% rise in April. Core CPI, which excludes the volatile food and energy prices, is expected to have risen 0.2% in May, after it rose 0.1% the month before.
At 10:00 a.m., the preliminary University of Michigan consumer confidence gauge for June is also due.
Meanwhile, foreclosures data was already released and the number of U.S. homeowners forced into foreclosure further last month, up almost 50% compared with a year earlier,and up 7% from April, according to RealtyTrac Inc..
The main corporate headline this morning no doubt has to do with Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO). The web portal said talks with Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) have ended and announced late Thursday an online ad partnership with Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), which could be worth $800 million in revenue. Yahoo said it believes the ad deal would be better than selling its search business to Microsoft, but some are concerned anti-trust issues would derail that deal too. Yahoo shares sank 10% on Thursday.
Also US Airways (NYSE: LCC) said that it’s cutting capacity on routes by up to 8%, increasing fees and shedding 1,700 employees. LCC shares closed down almost 16%.
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