Wall Street catches its breath

Futures point to tough start a day after blue-chip Dow soars to record close; pending home sales report due.

October 2 2007: 5:15 AM EDT

LONDON (CNNMoney.com) -- U.S. stocks looked set to struggle early Tuesday as investors caught their breath after pushing the Dow to a fresh record and ahead of a report on the housing sector.

At 4:56 a.m. ET, futures were mixed and pointing to a weak open for Wall Street.

The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average soared to a record closing high of 14,087.55 on Monday, despite an earnings warning from Citigroup.

Stocks have been on a run recently on hopes that the worst of the credit crunch is over and on expectations for the Federal Reserve to keep cutting interest rates. That optimism has helped offset some weaker economic readings and earnings.

On tap for Tuesday is the August pending home sales report, due at 10 a.m. ET.

In major corporate news, Palm (Charts) reported a loss for its first quarter late on Monday. The maker of the Treo smart-phone said results were pressured by growing competition from rivals like Apple (Charts, Fortune 500).

Among other stocks to watch, Yahoo! (Charts, Fortune 500) unveiled significant upgrades to its search engine on Tuesday, the latest effort in the company's battle with industry leader Google (Charts, Fortune 500).

In global trade, Asian markets rallied on Wall Street's gains. Major European markets also climbed in early trading. Top of page

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Market indexes are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer LIBOR Warning: Neither BBA Enterprises Limited, nor the BBA LIBOR Contributor Banks, nor Reuters, can be held liable for any irregularity or inaccuracy of BBA LIBOR. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2012 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Disclaimer The Dow Jones IndexesSM are proprietary to and distributed by Dow Jones & Company, Inc. and have been licensed for use. All content of the Dow Jones IndexesSM © 2012 is proprietary to Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Chicago Mercantile Association. The market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2012. All rights reserved. Most stock quote data provided by BATS.
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Market indexes are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer LIBOR Warning: Neither BBA Enterprises Limited, nor the BBA LIBOR Contributor Banks, nor Reuters, can be held liable for any irregularity or inaccuracy of BBA LIBOR. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2012 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Disclaimer The Dow Jones IndexesSM are proprietary to and distributed by Dow Jones & Company, Inc. and have been licensed for use. All content of the Dow Jones IndexesSM © 2012 is proprietary to Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Chicago Mercantile Association. The market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2012. All rights reserved. Most stock quote data provided by BATS.
© 2012 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Privacy Policy. Ad choices .