NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
U.S. stocks could be off to a rough start Tuesday after bearish notes from some leading investment banks.
U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower open for markets following the notes.
Credit Suisse First Boston cut its rating on No. 1 chip manufacturer Intel to "underperform" from "outperform." In addition, Merrill Lynch warned clients that five of its six short-term equity sentiment indicators suggest caution, as it pointed to a sharp rally in global stock markets since the presidential election.
Most Asian markets ended higher, although Japanese stocks didn't trade due to a holiday. European markets were mostly higher in early trading.
U.S. markets closed higher Monday after oil prices retreated from an earlier rally. (See box for more details)
That retreat continued early Tuesday, with U.S. crude futures down 6 cents to $48.58 a barrel in electronic trading and Brent oil futures off 5 cents to $44.33 a barrel in London.
Bond prices were slightly lower, with the yield on 10-year Treasurys rising to 4.18 percent in early trading. The dollar was again close to a new record low versus the euro and down slightly against the yen.
Fast-food chain McDonald's (Research) announced late Monday its third CEO of the year after Charlie Bell left the job after seven months to focus on his cancer treatment. Vice Chairman Jim Skinner will succeed him. Bell took the Dow component's top job after Jim Cantalupo suffered a fatal heart attack in April.
Fox Entertainment Group (Research), which is majority owned by News Corp. (Research), reached a $320 million deal Monday to broadcast most of college football's Bowl Championship Series from 2007 through 2010.
Google (Research) got a "buy" recommendation Tuesday from First Albany Capital, which initiated coverage of the Internet search engine with a $195 price target. Other analysts surveyed by earnings tracker First Call have a consensus 12-month target price of $145, or about $20 below Monday's close.
Airbus Industrie is designing a competitor to Boeing's proposed 7E7 "Dreamliner," its long-range commercial jet that is advertised as reducing operating costs, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.
It was more bad news for Boeing (Research), the best-performing Dow so far in 2004, which saw American Airlines, the world's largest airline, defer most of its new plane orders beyond 2010 on Monday in an attempt to save cash.
Computer and peripheral manufacturer Hewlett Packard (Research) announced a broad cutback in staff across all its business units planned for the first half of 2005. While the number of jobs being cut wasn't immediately available, it said it would take $200 million in charges to cover the cost, reducing income by 4 cents a share.
The National Association of Realtors is due to report October's existing home sales at 10 a.m. ET. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com forecast that sales will stay at a 6.75 million rate, unchanged from the September reading.
-- Reuters contributed to this report
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