NEW YORK, March 30 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks looked poised to drop lower in early trading on Thursday as technology issues extend this week's hefty losses on the back of a sharp sell-off overseas.
Inflation data was due before the opening bell but traders said they did not expect the figures to affect trading. Fourth-quarter gross domestic product and weekly jobless claims are expected at 8:30 a.m. EST (1330 GMT).
``It looks like a little bit of a nervous opening again today,' said James Volk, co-director of institutional trading at D.A. Davidson and Co. ``These markets have a little bit to go on the downside.'
``But you might get some stability later in the day because tomorrow will be the end of the quarter,' Volk said, referring to window dressing, or the end-of-quarter buying that some fund managers do to help push up prices of some of their bigger portfolio holdings.
Stock index futures signaled steep losses in early activity with the Nasdaq futures index for June down 58.25 points at 4,410.00 and the Standard & Poor's 500 futures off 13.50 at 1,516.60.
Technology stocks tumbled in European markets overnight with Frankfurt, Paris and Milan bourses falling more than two percent following Nasdaq's slide in the United States.
Japan's Nikkei also dropped lower after five sessions of gains as investors moved to lock in profits.
On Wednesday, the tech-driven Nasdaq composite (^IXIC - news) posted its third-largest point drop ever as investors rushed to sell their richly valued Internet stocks, rattled after top equities analysts questioned lofty prices.
The index fell 3.91 percent, or 189.22 points, to close at 4,644.67 - extending losses for the week.
The Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI - news) rose 82.61 points or 0.76 percent to 11,018.72, led by General Electric (NYSE:GE - news), which climbed 5.7 percent to a record high. The stock closed up 8-3/16 at 164-3/16.
The Standard & Poor's 500 stock index (^SPX - news) rose 0.79 of a point, or 0.05 percent, to 1,508.52.
In economic news, William McDonough, vice chairman of the Federal Reserve's policy-setting committee and head of the Fed Bank of New York, said the central bank will keep raising interest rates until consumer spending slows. But he expressed confidence that the hot U.S. economy is not generating a speculative bubble.
The five rate hikes since June have had only a ``very modest' effect so far, with little slowdown in spending on housing, cars and durable goods, he told economists and business leaders in Tokyo.
The 30-year U.S. Treasury bonded ended up 1/32, pushing the yield down to 5.97 percent from Tuesday's close of 5.98 percent.
Early on Thursday, oil prices steadied overseas from a midweek nosedive on the prospect for extra supplies and signs of possible dissent in the OPEC producers' cartel.
Brent crude futures rose 7 cents to $24.47 - holding below the key $25 per barrel level in London. In New York, the NYMEX crude contract settled down 64 cents at $26.45, seen as a bearish reaction to news of OPEC's output hike.
In corporate news, Seagate Technology (NYSE:SEG - news) announced a $20 billion transaction that takes the world's No. 1 computer disk-driver maker private and sells its 33 percent stake in fast-growing Veritas Software (NasdaqNM:VRTS - news) back to Seagate.
Seagate shares closed Wednesday down 4-5/8 at 62-3/4 and Veritas ended off 12-7/16 at 142-1/2. |
