Wall Street seen mixed, mkt eyes retail sales data
LONDON, May 11 (Reuters) - Wall Street stocks looked set for a mixed start on Thursday, judging by U.S. index futures trading in Europe.
Nasdaq and S&P futures signalled modest opening gains, but dealers said sparse volumes continued to pressure prices, and that April U.S. retail sales data -- due at 1230 GMT -- could change the rosier prospect.
``There's a buyers' strike ahead of next week's Fed meeting, money's sitting waiting. People are going to look hard at this data, but we've got PPI tomorrow, and CPI just ahead of the rate decision. So it's all very nervy,'' said one dealer.
Applied Materials (NasdaqNM:AMAT - news) fell as low as $78-3/4 after the New York market shut, when its earnings fell short of analysts' whisper forecasts. The stock staged a mini-bounce and traded at $80 in Europe.
Motorola (NYSE:MOT - news) -- the original trigger stock for the recent sell-off in TMTs -- bounced $3/8 from the New York official close at $87-7/16, after Salomon Smith Barney downgraded the stock and sent the price down 16 percent.
Dell (NasdaqNM:DELL - news) will be in focus later as the market looks ahead to its results which are due after hours. The stock failed to trade in Europe and was quoted around its closing level of $44-15/16. |
