Despite largely positive corporate earnings reports, investor caution has set upon Wall Street. For the third straight day stocks are set to move into negative territory, with futures showing the three major U.S. indexes heading lower ahead of Thursday's opening bell.Some blamed Wednesday's near 1% drops in the Dow Jones industrial average and the S&P 500 on a late-day sell-off driven by the latest Beige Book survey from the Federal Reserve that showed the economy is ever so slowly emerging from recession -- too slowly, it would seem, for investors.
But there were also some disappointing earnings releases, including one from eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY), which reported third quarter profits slumped 29% and issued a disappointing holiday forecast. Investors pummeled shares of the Internet auctioneer, sending the stock down 5% in after-hours trading.
Expect a slew of corporate earnings reports today, including those from: manufacturing conglomerate 3M Co. (NYSE: MMM); communications-giant AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T); Internet retailer Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN); tool-maker Black & Decker Corp. (NYSE: BDK); drug maker Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY); oil-seed processor Bunge Ltd. (NYSE: BG); credit-card issuer Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF); insurer Chubb Corp. (NYSE: CB); fast-food chain Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG) -- and that's only through the letter "C."
Among the first to report today was Credit Suisse Group (NYSE: CS). The Swiss banking-giant reported earnings doubled in the third quarter to 2.4 billion swiss francs ($2.4 billion), driven by healthy returns on stock trades and investment banking.
The Labor Department will issue its latest figures on initial and ongoing claims for unemployment assistance at 8:30 ET. Wall Street expects the number of new claims to equal last week's 514,000.
In overseas action, markets in Asia fell across the board Thursday driven down by financial stocks. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 0.5 percent to close 22,211, while Australia's All Ordinaries index fell nearly 0.6 percent to end at 4,819.
The gloom spread to European markets, where every major index was lower just before noon U.K. local time. Britain's FTSE 100 index was down 1.5 percent, while France's CAC and the German DAX were down about 1.7 percent.
Expect a slew of corporate earnings reports today, including those from: manufacturing conglomerate 3M Co. (NYSE: MMM); communications-giant AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T); Internet retailer Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN); tool-maker Black & Decker Corp. (NYSE: BDK); drug maker Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY); oil-seed processor Bunge Ltd. (NYSE: BG); credit-card issuer Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF); insurer Chubb Corp. (NYSE: CB); fast-food chain Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG) -- and that's only through the letter "C."
Among the first to report today was Credit Suisse Group (NYSE: CS). The Swiss banking-giant reported earnings doubled in the third quarter to 2.4 billion swiss francs ($2.4 billion), driven by healthy returns on stock trades and investment banking.
The Labor Department will issue its latest figures on initial and ongoing claims for unemployment assistance at 8:30 ET. Wall Street expects the number of new claims to equal last week's 514,000.
In overseas action, markets in Asia fell across the board Thursday driven down by financial stocks. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 0.5 percent to close 22,211, while Australia's All Ordinaries index fell nearly 0.6 percent to end at 4,819.
The gloom spread to European markets, where every major index was lower just before noon U.K. local time. Britain's FTSE 100 index was down 1.5 percent, while France's CAC and the German DAX were down about 1.7 percent.
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