Stock futures mixed after 2 days of big losses

[October 23, 2008]  NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street headed for a mixed open Thursday as investors awaited a government reading on employment and sifted through a batch of bleak corporate earnings that has stirred intense anxiety about the health of the global economy.

Some bounceback in stocks was to be expected after two days of steep losses fed by fears that an economic slowdown is spreading around the globe. Analysts say volatile trading will continue for some time as investors seek to determine whether stocks have bottomed out and try to gauge the severity of a recession that many believe is already here.

Investors have been somewhat heartened by signs of slow improvement in world credit markets, but murky corporate forecasts, a jump in the dollar and falling commodity prices have fed more unease about the economic bumps that may lie ahead. Among companies reporting earnings Thursday are Dow Chemical Co., Eli Lilly & Co., JetBlue Airways Corp. and Microsoft Corp.

Investors will also be watching government data on jobs. The Labor Department report is expected to show that new claims for unemployment benefits rose slightly last week from already elevated levels -- indicating that the labor market remains weak as companies lay off workers and cut back on hiring. The report is scheduled to be released Thursday at 8:30 a.m. EDT.

Ahead of the market's open, the Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 3, or 0.03 percent, to 8,560. On Wednesday, the Dow fell 514 points as investors worried that the global economy is poised to weaken even as parts of the credit market slowly show signs of recovery. That was on top of a 231-point loss Tuesday.

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The Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 0.30, or 0.03 percent, to 903.10, and the Nasdaq 100 index futures fell 3.00, or 0.24 percent, to 1,245.00.

Meanwhile, credit markets continued to slowly show signs of improvement. Demand for short-term Treasury bills, regarded as the safest assets around, held steady with the previous day as economic worries led investors to shun risky assets in favor of government bonds.

The three-month Treasury bill yielded 1.01 percent, unchanged from late Wednesday. The levels are a notable improvement from the 0.20 percent seen last week, when investors were willing to trade the slimmest of returns for a safe place to keep their money.

The dollar was lower against the euro and British pound, while gold prices fell.

Light, sweet crude rose 77 cents to $67.52 premarket electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract on Wednesday fell to a new 16-month low Wednesday as big increases in U.S. crude and gasoline stocks fed beliefs that the economic downturn is drying up demand for energy.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 2.46 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 was up 0.65 percent, Germany's DAX index was down 0.33 percent, and France's CAC-40 was up 0.01 percent.

[Associated Press; By STEVENSON JACOBS]

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