Wall Street licks its wounds

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- U.S. stocks looked set to continue their slide at the start Thursday, following a a sell-off that dragged both the Dow industrials and broader S&P 500 down more than 1 percent yesterday.

At 8:00 a.m. ET, futures, which were up in early trading, were pointing to a slightly lower opening for Wall Street, as bonds yields and oil prices both traded higher.

Stocks tanked Wednesday after a tumble in the bond market revived concerns about rising Treasury yields. Higher yields raise borrowing costs and can crimp corporate profits.

Treasury prices fell further in early trading Thursday, taking the yield on the benchmark 10-year note up to 5.14 percent from 5.13 percent late Wednesday.

Overseas markets were mixed. European markets opened lower, while stocks in Asia kept up their record-setting run. The dollar was higher against the euro and little changed against the yen in early trading.

Oil prices were higher in early trading, taking it above the $69 a barrel mark. U.S. light crude gained 70 cents to $69.56 a barrel in electronic trading.

In major corporate news, Merrill Lynch (Charts, Fortune 500) began selling some of the assets it seized from two Bear Stearns (Charts, Fortune 500) hedge funds heavily invested in securities backed by subprime mortgages.

The board of Dow Jones (Charts) announced late Wednesday is taking over negotiations from the Bancroft family that controls most of its voting shares regarding News Corp.'s (Charts, Fortune 500) $5 billion offer to buy the company. Shares of Dow Jones sank 52 cents, or almost 1 percent, to $60.13 in extended trading.

Institutional Shareholder Services, which advises major investors, is recommending that shareholders of auto parts maker Lear (Charts, Fortune 500) reject financier Carl Icahn's $2.86 billion proposed takeover of the company at its June 27 annual meeting, according to a report late Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal. The proposed takeover has the support of a special committee of Lear's board of directors, but is opposed by one of its major shareholders, Pzena Asset Management, which argues the $36 a share price is too low.

Dow component Pfizer (Charts, Fortune 500) said late Wednesday that U.S. health regulators will approve its novel AIDS drug called Maraviroc once certain conditions have been met, although it did not give details of the timing of that expected approval. Shares of the No. 1 drug company were narrowly higher in early trading in Frankfurt Thursday.

The London Stock Exchange said it's in merger talks with Borsa Italiana, a move viewed as a response to NYSE Euronext's growing global expansion.