Dark outlook for stocks

U.S. markets wary as oil prices keep up record run; earnings from 3M, Caterpillar, Honeywell ahead.

October 19 2007: 5:00 AM EDT

LONDON (CNNMoney.com) -- U.S. stocks appeared poised for a sharply lower open on Friday as oil prices hovered around $90 a barrel and investors braced for more earnings reports.

Oil prices crossed the key $90 mark for the first time in after-hours trading in New York yesterday. In Asian trading on Friday, prices had eased to $89.54 a barrel.

A number of firms are on tap to report earnings before the market open, including Dow components 3M (Charts, Fortune 500), Caterpillar (Charts, Fortune 500) Honeywell (Charts, Fortune 500) and McDonalds (Charts, Fortune 500).

Techs may get some support from Google (Charts, Fortune 500), which reported late Thursday strong earnings and revenue that came in above Wall Street's estimates.

Friday also marks the 20th anniversary of Black Monday, one of the biggest market crashes in history, when the Dow lost 22.6 percent in a single day.

The rising price of oil, along with a huge profit drop at Bank of America (Charts, Fortune 500), pressured sentiment on Thursday. The blue-chip Dow finished the session a few points lower, although the Nasdaq managed a modest gain.

In global trade, major markets in Asia finished the session lower. European stocks were lackluster 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.
© 2012 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Privacy Policy. Ad choices .