Stock Futures Slip on Oil, Microsoft News
U.S. stock futures pointed lower on Friday, with oil price strength continuing to affect markets, patent concerns weighing on software giant Microsoft and unfavorable results set to weigh on a pair of firms involved in tax preparation.
S&P 500 futures eased 1.5 points at 1,457.70 and Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 4.25 points at 1,850.00. Dow industrial futures dropped 11 points.
On Thursday, the Dow industrials dropped 52 points and the S&P 500 lost 1.25 points after reports that Iran had ignored a deadline to suspend its nuclear enrichment program, though the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite closed up 6.5 points.
Crude oil futures, affected both by supply data and the news out of Tehran, rose an added 48 cents in electronic trading on Friday to $61.43 a barrel.
The dollar was little moved against major rivals. The key economic data out of Europe was a slightly worse-than-forecast decline in German sentiment. No major economic releases are due out of the U.S., with two non-voting members of the Federal Reserve due to speak.
Microsoft Corp. shares slipped 0.7 percent in Frankfurt following a court ruling that it owned Alcatel-Lucent $1.5 billion over a dispute on MP3 music-related patents.
Alcatel-Lucent shares gained in Paris on hopes that other firms, including Apple Inc., also may have to make payments to the French-American telecom equipment maker. Apple was flat in thin Frankfurt trading.
Intuit Inc. may see some pressure after the tax software firm reported a decline in quarterly profit and agreed to sell its outsourced-payroll business. Wachovia Securities reduced its fiscal 2007 estimates on the company’s guidance.
Tax preparer H&R Block Inc. also may fall after swinging to a third-quarter loss on costs tied to its mortgage business.
Sanyo Electric Co. plunged 21 percent in Tokyo trading following a report that it is suspected of misrepresenting losses in the year ended March 2004. The news could affect Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which paid $1.1 billion for convertible preferred stock in Sanyo.
The Nikkei 225 nonetheless closed 0.4 percent higher, and Sydney stocks hit a record high. The FTSE 100 in London, after an early rise, slipped 0.3 percent.