Before the bell: Futures tumble on financials, ahead of data, earnings

Posted Jul 15th 2008 7:43AM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Before the Bell, International Markets, Earnings Reports, Analyst Reports, Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades, Intel (INTC), General Motors (GM), Employees, Market Matters, Johnson and Johnson (JNJ), Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD), Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), Wachovia Corp (WB), Washington Mutual (WM), Economic Data, Federal Reserve

Who is next to fail/fall? That seems to be the only question on investors' minds these days, and this morning is not different as concern about the health of the financial sector grows. With global markets plunging overnight, the dollar falling to yet another record low against the euro and ahead of a day full of economic data releases and earnings, as well as a testimony from Fed chairman Bernanke, U.S. stock futures dropped this morning, indicating the market is poised for a lower open.

On Monday, what seemed like might be a promising day with the government plan to bail out Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) and several large deals including the mega beer deal between Anheuser-Busch (NYSE: BUD) and InBev. But once again financials took front stage and after IndyMac was seized by federal regulators over the weekend Wall Street tumbled. The Dow industrials fell 45 points, or 0.41%, the S&P 500 dropped 11 points, or 0.9%, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 26 points, or 1.17%.

As the day go on, investors will have more to chew on though as several economic reports are due out today. June Producer Price Index, a measure of inflation at the wholesale level, is due before the market open, at 8:30 a.m. EDT. While economists expect a smaller increase in prices in June, an increase is expected for both PPI and core-PPI, which excludes food and energy prices.
At the same time, June retail sales will be released, and may show a nice increase due to the government checks.
July NY Empire State Index will also be released at that time and it's likely we'll see it decline further.
Then, 10:00 a.m., a reading on business inventories for May is due.

Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is due to give his semi-annual testimony before Congress at 10 a.m. EDT. He will also testify at a hearing about regulatory responses to recent market developments.

Shares of financial companies continue their wild -- mostly downward -- ride. After Washington Mutual (NYSE: WM) over 34% Monday, it's making some signs of a recovery this morning, up over 3.5% in premarket trading. Wachovia (NYSE: WB), however, which was already hit by a downgrade Monday, has been hit again by a downgrade to Underperform courtesy of Oppenheimer. And so, after declining over 14.7% Monday, it's declining nearly 9% in premarket trading this morning.

Investors will also have earnings from heavyweights such as Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) and Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) to contemplate today. Analysts seem to expect strong earnings from Intel.

And finally, the troubles for automaker General Motors (NYSE: GM) are far from over. CEO Rick Wagoner is expected to announce several thousand more job cuts as well as further production cuts at a news conference at 9 a.m. EDT.

Tags: bud, featured, fnm, fre, gm, intc, jnj, wb, wm