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 Wal-Mart Stores Inc. reported a strong rise in March sales at stores open for at least a year, and boosted its forecast for April sales and first-quarter profit. But investors remain cautious overall about the retail sector
-- Wal-Mart, a discount retailer that sells many consumer staples, was expected to outperform its pricier counterparts focused on discretionary items.
Home furnishings retailers Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., for one, warned late Wednesday its first-quarter profit would come in below the average analyst estimate.
Traders also appeared hesitant with oil prices near record highs, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson preparing to make speeches on Thursday, and banks revealing more trouble with the credit markets.
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. disclosed in a regulatory filing Wednesday that it liquidated three funds because of the tight credit markets and bought the assets of those funds, valued at $1 billion, on Feb. 29. The investment bank said it also purchased deteriorated assets valued at $800,000 from other funds.
Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 46, or 0.37 percent, to 12,526. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 6.50, or 0.48 percent, to 1,353.80. Nasdaq 100 index futures fell 6.25, or 0.34 percent, to 1,831.00.
Stocks had fallen Wednesday after a surge in oil prices and a profit warning from United Parcel Service Inc.
In other corporate news, Yahoo Inc. and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL are close to a deal to combine their Internet operations, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources. The deal is aimed at thwarting Microsoft Corp.'s effort to buy Yahoo
-- but Microsoft is reportedly talking with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. about launching a joint bid for Yahoo.
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 Bond prices rose. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 3.46 percent from 3.48 percent late Wednesday.
At 8:30 a.m., the Labor Department is expected to report that unemployment claims fell last week after rising to a two-year high in the previous week.
Light sweet crude rose 44 cents to $111.31 a barrel in premarket electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Gold prices rose, and the dollar was lower against other major currencies.
The Bank of England lowered its base lending rate by a quarter-point to 5 percent, the lowest level in 17 months.
Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average dropped 1.27 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.69 percent, Germany's DAX index fell 1.24 percent, and France's CAC-40 fell 1.30 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 MADLEN READ]
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.
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