www

U.S. stock futures are down this morning indicating a similar start on Wall Street following two major retailers cutting outlook outlook and ahead of housing and consumer data.

Yesterday, U.S. stocks finished the session lower after showing gains in the first part of the day, thus bringing last week's rally following the Federal Reserve's 50 basis point rate cut. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 61.1 points or 0.44%, the S&P 500 lost 8.02 points or 0.53% and the Nasdaq composite was down 3 points or 0.12%. The UAW strike at General Motors (NYSE: GM) that hit at 11 in the morning didn't help sentiment.

Economic data due today includes September consumer confidence and August existing home sales, both to be released at 10:00 a.m. EDT. Consumer confidence is expected to tick down and housing is forecast to fall further from 5.75 million in July to 5.5 million in August according to Briefing.com. The dollar lost ground ahead of the reports.

Overseas, Asian markets generally finished the day higher. European stocks are also declining by midday.

Further pressure on markets this morning comes from Lennar (NYSE: LEN), which reported earnings earlier this morning posting a Q3 loss of $3.25 per share including a charge of $3.33 per share. Revenue declined 44%.

As for the United Auto Workers strike against GM, analysts say that if it were to last longer than a week or two, it could cost GM billions of dollars and stop the momentum the company was building with some of its new models. While a short strike may actually improve its inventory situation, the first month is estimated to cost $8.1 billion in the first month and $7.2 billion in the second month, eventually affecting consumers as well.

Two major retailers warned after the bell that they see a slowdown in sales. Target (NYSE: TGT) said that it would miss its September same-store sales by a mile. Lowe's (NYSE: LOW) also reduced its targets. In premarket trading, TGT is down about 2.5% and LOW down about 3.8%, but both saw 4% and 7% declines in Frankfurt.

The Wall Street Journal also reported yesterday that Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) may be buying up to 5% in the popular social networking site Facebook for $300 to $500 million.

Get the latest on cars and trucks
from GM and all brands at AOL Autos.