US Stock Futures Slightly Down; Liberty Media Offers To Buy Barnes & Noble

US stock futures are slightly lower this morning. Liberty Media Corp

offered to purchase Barnes & Noble Inc

for $17 per share. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 16 points to 12,575.00 and futures on the S&P 500 stock index fell 0.70 point to 1,341.00. Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 1 point to 2,368.00. US stocks closed higher on Thursday, with the Dow Jones industrial average gaining 0.36% to 12,605.32, the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index rising 0.22% to 1,343.60 and the NASDAQ composite index surging 0.30% to 2,823.31. Shares of Barnes & Noble Inc surged about 24.7% in pre-market trading after Liberty Media Corp offered to purchase Barnes & Noble for $17 per share, or $1 billion. AnnTaylor Stores Corp

is projected to report its Q1 earnings at $0.48 per share on revenue of $512.11 million. Donaldson Company Inc

is projected to report its FQ3 EPS at $0.72 on revenue of $581.41 million. Hibbett Sports Inc

is expected to report its Q1 EPS at $0.67 on revenue of $201.04 million. Gap Inc

reported a 23% decline in its first-quarter profit. The company's net income fell to $233 million, or $0.40 per share, from $302 million, or $0.45 per share, in the year-ago period. Its sales declined 1% to $3.3 billion. However, analysts were expecting a profit of $0.39 per share on sales of $3.3 billion. Gap lowered its full-year profit projections to a range of $1.40 to $1.50 per share, from its earlier forecast of $1.88 to $1.93 per share. However, analysts expected full-year earnings of $1.84 per share. Safeway Inc

reported that its Board of Directors lifted the company's regular quarterly dividend by 21% from $0.12 per share to $0.145 per share. Salesforce.com Inc

reported its FQ1 net income at $530,000, or break-even on a per-share basis, versus $17.7 million, or $0.13 per share, in the year-ago period. Its revenue surged 34% to $504.4 million. On an adjusted basis, Salesforce.com earnings dropped 7% to $0.28 per share. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.27 per share on revenue of $482.6 million. The company also issued an upbeat forecast for its current quarter and full year. Asian markets ended mixed, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average dropping 0.14%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving down 0.42% and China's Shanghai Composite declining 0.04%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 0.16% and India's Sensex gained 0.99%. European markets were higher today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index has gained 0.49%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved up 0.66%. Oil futures gained, with the Nymex crude-oil futures rising $0.68 at $99.61 a barrel in electronic trade. Against the yesterday, the dollar dropped 0.2% fall to ¥81.56. However, the greenback fell 0.1% to trade at $1.4293 against the euro. Read more