Stock futures flat near record high, focus on data, earnings

By Rodrigo Campos

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were little changed in light trading on Monday following a record closing high by the S&P 500 on Friday, as a week filled with economic data and key corporate earnings gets under way.

The S&P 500 closed at a record high to cap its biggest weekly gain in three months on stronger-than-expected earnings from companies, including Google and Morgan Stanley.

Shares of Dow component McDonald's fell 1.9 percent in light premarket trading after posting earnings. Other companies expected to report results on Monday include Netflix and Texas Instruments .

"With no fresh themes emerging this morning, market participants will continue to look towards earnings for direction - and earnings have delivered," said Andre Bakhos, managing director at Janlyn Capital LLC in Bernardsville, New Jersey.

"It will primarily be an earnings and economic data driven market," he said.

The National Association of Realtors releases existing-home sales for September at 10 a.m. (1400 GMT). Economists in a Reuters survey forecast a 5.30 million units at an annual rate versus 5.48 million in August.

S&P 500 futures rose a point and were little changed in terms of fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 3 points and Nasdaq 100 futures added 6 points.

Financial stocks could be in focus after JPMorgan Chase & Co reached a tentative $13 billion deal with the U.S. government to settle investigations into bad mortgage loans sold to investors by JPMorgan and the banks it bought during the financial crisis.

"A settlement of this size brings closure for many and it allows them to put the episode behind," Bakhos said.

Shares of Tellabs Inc rose 5.5 percent in premarket trading after the network services provider agreed to be bought by Marlin Equity Partners for $891 million.

Japan's exports rose but were well short of expectations in September, a sign that slowing demand in Asia is taking the shine off Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's stimulus policies and clouding the outlook for a budding economic recovery.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Kenneth Barry)

• Finance
• Investment & Company Information
• corporate earnings

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stock-futures-drift-near-record-ahead-data-earnings-114119214--sector.html
Tags: scarlett johansson   once upon a time   jimmy kimmel   apple   lsu football