Slippery slope for stocks

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- U.S. stocks look set for a rough open Thursday after posting three straight sessions of gains.

At 7:11 a.m. ET, Nasdaq and S&P futures were lower, with a comparison to fair value pointing to losses at the market open.

The pullback comes on the heels of a dramatic day on Wall Street. Stocks plunged in the last hour of trading Wednesday but rallied in the final minutes of the session to end sharply higher.

Stocks have gyrated recently amid concerns about credit conditions and the ongoing housing slump, and turbulence is likely to continue Thursday.

In global trade, European stocks sank after French bank BNP Paribas said it was hit by problems in the U.S. subprime mortgage sector. The bank said it was freezing three funds because current conditions make it impossible to value their assets. Asian markets advanced.

"We are probably headed for another roller-coaster ride. The news that BNP froze the $2.2 billion worth of funds over subprime concerns rekindles the fears that had been in the market place over the past couple of weeks," Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Avalon Partners, told Reuters. "The question is what does this all really mean in terms of corporate profits."

The U.S. economic calendar is light, with a weekly report on jobless claims the only release on tap.

In major corporate news, movie rental chain Blockbuster (Charts, Fortune 500) said it bought film download service Movielink. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Stocks in focus include Rupert Murdoch's News Corp (Charts, Fortune 500)., which reported a rise in quarterly profit after the market close Wednesday, boosted by ad sales and its cable channels.

Elsewhere on the earnings front, DirecTV (Charts, Fortune 500) and Cardinal Health (Charts, Fortune 500) are due to report quarterly results Thursday.

Oil prices eased, with U.S. light crude for September delivery slipping 40 cents to $71.75 a barrel in electronic trading.

Treasury prices, which have benefited recently from investor looking to land a flight to safety, were turbulent. The benchmark 10-year note rose, lowering its yield to 4.79 percent from 4.88 percent late Wednesday, after a big selloff. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.