U.S. stock futures pointed lower

U.S. stock futures pointed lower

	Published : Mon, 27 Aug 2007 12:18 By : Agencies Print this Story

NEW YORK (AP) - Wall Street, coming off a solid week of gains, appeared headed for a lower open Monday as traders awaited data on existing home sales.

Stock futures fell ahead of The National Association of Realtors' report, scheduled to be released at 10 a.m. EDT. It is expected to show that sales of existing homes inched upward in July, the first increase after four straight months of declines, according to the consensus forecast of economists surveyed by Thomson/IFR. A much weaker-than-anticipated figure could worry investors who are still jittery about mortgage defaults and deliquencies causing lenders to make credit less available.

There still seems to be underlying appetite for corporate takeovers despite concerns about available credit -- Taiwan's Acer Inc., the world's fourth-largest computer vendor by unit sales, on Monday said it will acquire U.S. computer maker Gateway Inc. for $710 million.

But it's possible that the huge buyout sums seen earlier in the year, and which drove the Dow Jones industrial average to record highs last month, might slip as debt becomes more difficult to take on. The Home Depot Inc. has tentatively agreed to sell its wholesale distribution business to a group of private equity firms for $1.8 billion -- less than originally planned, a person with direct knowledge of the situation said Sunday. The deal includes Home Depot guaranteeing $1 billion of the debt the buyers will take on to complete the transaction.

In premarket trading Monday, Dow futures expiring in September fell 32, or 0.24 percent, to 13,375, while Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 5.10, or 0.34 percent, to 1,478.50. Nasdaq 100 index futures fell 6.00, or 0.30 percent, to 1,963.50.

Last week was the stock market's strongest in a month, following weeks of volatility due to worries about credit shrinking to the point where it pinches economic and corporate growth. The Dow finished up 2.29 percent for the week, the Standard & Poor's 500 index advanced 2.31 percent, and the Nasdaq composite index jumped 2.86 percent.

Bonds were poised to open slightly lower Monday, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note edging up to 4.63 percent from 4.62 percent late Friday. The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices fell.

Light, sweet crude fell a penny to $71.08 a barrel in premarket electronic trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

In Asian trading, Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 0.32 percent, while China's Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.8 percent, or 42.45 points, to a record 5,150.12. The index hit record closes every day last week.

In afternoon European trading, Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.37 percent, Germany's DAX index rose 0.15 percent, and France's CAC-40 rose 0.57 percent.