US Stock Futures Little Unchanged; PALM, Bank Stocks In Focus
US stock futures moved only slightly, with investors focusing entirely on individual stocks such as Palm (NASDAQ: PALM), which posted weak results and gave a light sales outlook. While futures on S&P 500 futures lost eight-tenths of a point to 1160.50, those on Nasdaq 100 futures fell three-quarters of a point to 1941.00. Meanwhile, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slipped 6 points.
PALM slumped 17.88% in the premarket session on the company's weaker-than-expected sales outlook for the fourth quarter. Palm has already lost $18.5 million in the third quarter. Tim Long, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets, kept an “underperform” rating on PALM and said that customers are disinterested in the company’s devices and operating system. He believes that the company will not be acquired in the near term.
Meanwhile, US listed shares of Lloyds Banking Group PLC (NYSE: LYG) rose 9% in premarket trade after the lender announced that it would be profitable this year. There is a possibility of today’s session being affected by quadruple witching, which happens when contracts for stock index futures, stock index options, stock options and single stock futures expire.
Elsewhere, Asian stocks continued their march up for the sixth consecutive week today, marking the longest string of weekly gains since a global bull market began a year ago. European shares were higher in early trading and the FTSE 100 was up 0.6% in London.
Read more from Benzinga's Markets.
