Stocks headed for moderately higher open as oil falls
Monday May 12, 7:09 am ET
By Tim Paradis, AP Business Writer
Wall Street heads for moderately higher open as oil prices fall, dollar shows rebound

NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. stocks headed for a moderately higher open Monday as oil prices ticked lower and the dollar advanced.

Stocks looked for a modest rebound Monday after Wall Street's first negative week in a month. Investors will be looking to a flurry of economic figures due this week on consumers to determine where the economy might be headed.

ADVERTISEMENT
Light, sweet crude fell 78 cents to $125.18 per barrel in premarket electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil prices surged nearly $10 last week, touching off concerns about rising prices and their affect on businesses and consumers.

The dollar's advance Monday appeared to help ease some concerns about inflation. A weak dollar can exacerbate price increases, especially since hard commodities like oil become more attractive to investors seeking a hedge against inflation.

Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 17, or 0.1 percent, to 12,761.

Standard & Poor's 500 index futures 2.80, or 0.2 percent, to 1,391.80, and the Nasdaq 100 index futures rose 1.5, or 0.1 percent, to 1,964.8.

Bond prices slipped. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 3.79 percent from 3.78 percent late Friday. The dollar was higher against most other major currencies, while gold prices fell.

In corporate news, FedEx Corp. late Friday lowered its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings forecast, citing rising fuel costs.

Investors will be looking to other readings on consumers this week to determine the toll rising energy costs might be having. Government figures are due on retail sales in April. And retailers including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Macy's Inc., JCPenney Co. and Kohls Corp. are due to report first-quarter results.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 0.64 percent. In morning trading, Britain's FTSE 100 was up 0.55 percent, Germany's DAX index rose 0.62 percent, and France's CAC-40 rose 0.75 percent.

New York Stock Exchange: NYSE, New York Stock Exchange

Nasdaq Stock Market: NASDAQ Stock Market - Stock Quotes - Stock Exchange News - NASDAQ.com

__________________
I am not a registered broker so please buy and sell on your own choice. These are just my opinions and should not be used for buy/sell signals. Please check out disclaimer for any market awareness for any of the above mentioned stocks.