Stock futures off; Microsoft, GE, housing in focus

Stock futures off; Microsoft, GE, housing in focus
Coming up: Existing-home-sales data
MADRID (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock-market futures pushed lower on Friday, with sentiment weighed by disappointment from Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc. and with more blue-chip results due from General Electric Co. and McDonald’s Corp.

Investors are also gearing up for existing-home-sales data and watching for news from the second day of the European Union summit.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average (CBOT JZ2) fell 13 points to 13,474, while those for the Standard & Poor’s 500 index (GLC:SPZ2) fell 1.7 points to 1,449.80.

Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index (CME:NDZ2) fell 4.5 points to 2,728.25.

“We don’t have much in the way of a lead in terms of economic news apart from existing-home sales, but housing data has been pretty good so far, and if this figure reinforces what we have seen thus far, we could find we end the day up,” said Mike Lenhoff, chief strategist at Brewin Dolphin.

The National Association of Realtors will release September existing-home sales Friday at 10 a.m. Eastern. Economists polled by MarketWatch expect to see a slight fall on the month to a 4.8 million annual rate, though that would still mean a 12% rise on an annual basis.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/stock-future...beforebell