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 Concerns about consumer spending sent Wall Street lower on Thursday, with a 120-point drop in the Dow Jones industrial average. J.C. Penney Co. and Kohl's Corp. scaled back its projections for the holiday shopping season.
Also weighing on investors was continued concern that turmoil in the credit markets will force more banks to writedown bad investments. There were also reports late Thursday that Residential Capital, the troubled mortgage lending arm of GMAC, was close to breaching bank loan covenants.
The unit is operated by private equity fund Cerberus Capital Management and General Motors Corp., which may not step up to provide the lender with additional capital, according to reports in the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal.
Investors were looking to snap a two-week losing streak on Wall Street amid concern that losses related to subprime mortgages will spread.
Dow futures rose 36, or 0.08 percent, to 13,171. Standard & Poor's 500 futures added 2.10, or 0.14 percent, to 1,460.00. Nasdaq 100 index futures rose 1.75, or 0.09 percent, to 2,035.25.
Oil prices held steady amid expectations that global crude supplies will remain tight despite a U.S. oil inventory report that showed a surprising build in domestic crude stockpiles. Light, sweet crude rose 16 cents to $93.59 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
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 There was little in the way of economic news expected Friday. However, Fannie Mae, the government-sponsored mortgage lender, will hold a question-and-answer session to discuss its accounting procedures and the housing slump. The investor call will be held at 9 a.m. EST.
The drop in U.S. stocks on Thursday sent shares lower in Asia and Europe. Britain's FTSE 100 tumbled 0.52 percent, Germany's DAX index fell 0.73 percent, while France's CAC-40 shed 0.57 percent. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei stock average closed down 1.57 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 3.95 percent.
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On the Net:
New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com/
Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com/
[Associated Press; By JOE BEL BRUNO]
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.
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