Futures shine on consumers Stock futures higher ahead of report on consumer confidence as No. 1 consumer products maker P&G tops earnings target. NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Investors will be eyeing the U.S. consumer Tuesday as they weigh the latest confidence survey and results from the No. 1 consumer products maker. Stock futures, which predict the direction of stocks at the market open, were up in early trading Tuesday. Dow component Procter & Gamble (Charts), the maker of such products as Tide detergent, Pampers diapers and Gillette razors, reported improved profits that beat earnings per share forecasts by a penny. The University of Michigan will release its updated consumer confidence survey results for October just after the market open, with economists forecasting that lower energy prices and a strong job market will help lift the index to 107.8 from 104.5 in the initial October reading. The other economic report out Tuesday showed employment costs up 1 percent in the third quarter, a bit higher than the 0.9 percent gain in the second quarter. Economists had forecast that the measure of wages and benefit costs would again post a 0.9 percent rise. Oil fell in early trading Tuesday, continuing a sharp decline Monday afternoon that helped keep the Dow from losing much ground despite disappointing sales news from Wal-Mart Stores (Charts) and disappointing Internet subscriber growth at Verizon Communications (Charts), a Dow component. Verizon could be under more pressure Tuesday after a downgrade to a neutral rating at UBS. Another Dow component, tobacco giant Altria (Charts), will be at the Supreme Court on Tuesday as its Philip Morris unit argues against an $80 million judgment the company was ordered to pay by an Oregon jury. The company will argue the award was excessive in an important case that could limit the power of juries to impose large punitive awards. Standard & Poor's announced late Monday that biotechnology company Celgene (Charts) will replace AmSouth Bancorp (Charts) in its flagship S&P 500 stock index after the close of trading Nov. 3, as AmSouth is due to be purchased by Regions Financial Corp. (Charts). A stock that is added to the S&P typically gets a lift as managers of S&P 500 index funds have to buy shares. Stocks closed mixed in Asia, where electronics and entertainment conglomerate Sony (Charts) said Tuesday it received a subpoena from the Department of Justice as part of an industry wide probe into sales of a particular type of memory chip. Stocks in Europe rebounded from earlier losses to trade slightly higher, as early trading was hurt by Swiss financial services giant UBS (Charts) reporting that third-quarter group net profit fell 21 percent. Shares of BP (Charts) were down in early London trading after U.S. investigators found that BP executives were aware of problems with equipment well before an explosion at the company's Texas City, Texas, refinery in March 2005 killed 15 workers and injured 180 others. The dollar was higher against the euro and the yen. |
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