U.S. stock futures were mixed to lower early in the morning indicating a similar start on Wall Street. Investors remained cautious following yesterday's declines and given today doesn't bring much in terms of economic news. Oil prices retreated somewhat.On Thursday, stocks closed lower after several indicators pointed to a slowing economy. In light of higher inflation that was reported Wednesday, the word 'stagflation' was on many investors' lips. The Dow industrials yesterday dropped nearly 143 points, or 1.15%, the S&P 500 declined 17 points, or 1.29%, and the Nasdaq composite, shed 27%, or 1.17%.
Without major economic data releases today, investors will likely take their cue from different factors. One could very well be oil prices. After crude futures climbed over $101 a barrel earlier this week, it has slowly trended downward, reaching near $98 per barrel this morning. The U.S. government report of domestic crude inventories showed a rise last week, helped push oil prices down.
Overseas, Asian markets tumbled with Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index both decreasing 1.4%. NTT DoCoMo fell 4.8% in Japan, with other phone companies declining after announcing price cuts. European shares also fell in morning trading due to RWE AG's earnings missing analysts' estimates and a drop in oil pushed energy producers lower. RWE tumbled 4%, while BP (NYSE: BP) and Shell (NYSE: RDS) led oil shares' decline.
BP, however, said it "expects to wring at least 2 billion barrels more crude from Alaska's Prudhoe Bay oilfield," which have pushed the shares higher in premarket trading.
In other news, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) attempted to appease antitrust regulators in Europe and said Thursday it will share more information about its products and technology so that it would work better with rivals' software. European Union regulators weren't entirely pleased, however, as they said the software maker didn't address monopoly abuse in the past and other issues.
Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU) shares are down about 3.5% in premarket trading after the financial software maker reported a 21% decline in second-quarter profit on Thursday and forecast fiscal third-quarter profit below analyst expectations.
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