AP News, February 6th, 2007
U.S. stock futures sported a tepid rise on Tuesday ahead of speeches from Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, with printer makers in focus on Eastman Kodak's introduction of a new line.
S&P 500 futures edged up 1.4 points at 1,455.00 and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 3.5 points at 1,809.00. Dow industrial futures improved 12 points.
U.S. stocks closed little moved on Monday despite a flurry of deals. The Dow Jones industrials ended up 8 points, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 5 points and the S&P 500 declined 1.4 points.
There's not much in the way of economic releases from the U.S. on Tuesday, but Paulson is due to testify before the U.S. Ways and Means committee at 10 a.m. EST, and Bernanke will make a speech in Omaha, Neb., at 1:30 p.m.
Fed Presidents Michael Moskow and Janet Yellen also will be delivering speeches.
The dollar rose against the Japanese yen but eased against the euro. Gold futures climbed $2.10 to $658.20 an ounce.
Oil futures rose 70 cents to $59.44 a barrel in electronic trading.
Earnings releases are due from companies including Tyco International Ltd, Duke Energy Corp., and after Tuesday's close, Cisco Systems Inc.
Toyota Motor reported a 7 percent profit rise in the fourth quarter, while oil giant BP reported a 22 percent profit fall and also guided expectations for future production lower.
Eastman Kodak Co. will be in focus on the introduction of higher-priced printers with lower-priced cartridges. That will put the company in competition with Hewlett-Packard, Canon, Seiko Epson and Lexmark International.
Equity Office Properties, the Chicago real estate investment trust focused on office properties, said it approved a higher bid for the company from Blackstone Group, valued at $55.50 a share cash, or about $39 billion. Blackstone had been offering $54 a share cash. In a statement, EOP said its board met after receiving on Feb. 4, "a non-binding letter" from Vornado Realty Trust, the New York REIT, "unaccompanied by definitive terms or documentation" and containing "an alternative to its prior part-cash/part-stock offer at a stated value of $56 per share."
International Business Machines late Monday said it sold its 3.5 percent stake in Lenovo for $123 million, selling its shares at roughly a 7 percent discount.
National Semiconductor shares declined 2 percent in Frankfurt after the company said it now expects third-quarter revenue to decrease 14 percent to 15 percent from the $501.6 million reported in the second quarter because of lower shipments. National Semi previously expected third-quarter revenue to be down 8 percent to 11 percent sequentially.
Sohu.com shares may drop after the Beijing-based Internet portal's quarterly revenue fell short of expectations. Revenue for the fourth quarter rose 16 percent to $34.4 million. Analysts were looking for revenue of $35.5 million. Sohu's net income fell 32 percent to $6.07 million, or 16 cents a share. Earnings excluding stock options would have been $8.1 million, or 21 cents a share. Analysts expected earnings of 17 cents a share.
Gains for camera-related stocks lifted Japan's Nikkei 225 by 0.4 percent on Tuesday. The FTSE 100 rose 0.4 percent in London, hitting a six-year high.
