US Stock Futures Do Not Point To A Bright Day For Wall Street

After a long weekend, the day for futures on the US stock index started weak today, with traders returning to a slew of earnings and merger announcements.

While shares of Kraft Foods Inc (NYSE: KFT) slipped 2.77% in pre-market trading after the company’s acquisition offer was accepted by UK candy maker Cadbury Plc (NYSE: CBY), Broadview Security (NYSE: CFL) surged 32.40% after it agreed to be bought by Tyco International Ltd.

While futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index expiring in March lost 0.2% to 1,130.5, those in the Nasdaq-100 Index were little changed at 1,862.75. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures also slipped 0.1% to 10,550. The key highlights of the day today are Citigroup (NYSE: C) and IBM (NYSE: IBM), both of which are scheduled to post key corporate results. After mixed results by JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) on Friday, market is looking up to C to provide a direction to the market.

Meanwhile, markets in Europe retreated with the bank sector triggering the fall. Asian stocks also fell as investors took to profit taking after a recent run-up in technology shares.