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Before the bell: Futures seesaw ahead of Fed decision; KFT, PG, SNE, GM, MSFT, GOOG ...

Posted Oct 29th 2008 8:09AM by Melly AlazrakiMelly Alazraki RSS Feed
Filed under: Before the bell, Earnings reports, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), General Motors (GM), Market matters, Sony Corp ADR (SNE), Aetna Inc (AET), Comcast Cl'A' (CMCSA), Corning Inc (GLW), Procter and Gamble (PG), Economic data, Kraft Foods'A' (KFT), Qwest Communications Intl (Q), Federal Reserve, MetLife Inc. (MET)

U.S. stock futures declined Wednesday morning but then turned positive seesawed Wednesday morning, a day after one of the biggest day of gains on Wall Street that saw the Dow industrials end up 889 points and close above 9,000 again, as investors awaited the Federal Reserve decision on interest rates to be announced at 2:15 pm. Most are expecting the Fed to cut rates by at least half a point to 1%. Meanwhile, oil rebounded from a 17-month low to above $64 per barrel ahead of the weekly inventory report due out later today. Also, September durable goods orders will be released ahead of the opening bell.

Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE: KFT) reported adjusted earnings of 44 cents per share, inline with estimates. Kraft also raised expectations for 2008 earnings.

Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) reported a 9% rise in both earnings and revenue, beating analyst estimates on both counts. P&G kept the same outlook.

Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) reported that quarterly profit plunged 72% due to a surging yen that wiped out profits from flat-panel TV and PlayStation 3 sales and revenue from the movie Hancock. This shouldn't have come as a surprise as last year the company slashed full year outlook.


General Motors (NYSE: GM) is due to release its global sales before the market open just as debate over a bailout for the Big Three is raging.

Other companies reporting earnings today include Aetna (NYSE: AET), Corning (NYSE: GLW), Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA), Qwest (NYSE: Q) and several insuerers such as Prudential (NYSE: PRU), MetLife (NYSE: MET) and Hartford Financial (NYSE: HIG).

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) introduced Windows 7 Tuesday, ending Vista brand. The new OS will be slimmer and more responsive, it says. Microsoft also plans to introduce with its next Office, a web-based version of the product.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) has reached a settlement Tuesday with the publishing industry where it would pay $125 million make many millions of digital books available on the Web, with payments to authors and publishers for their use.

Tags: aet, cmcsa, glw, gm, goog, inthenews, kft, met, msft, pg, pru, q, sne

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Last updated: November 10, 2009: 09:12 PM

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