Stocks set for cautious open

LONDON (CNNMoney.com) -- U.S. stock futures slipped early Thursday after a disappointing outlook from eBay cast a cloud over the tech sector and investors awaited another batch of corporate earnings.

At 4:41 a.m. ET, Nasdaq and S&P futures were lower, indicating a rough start for Wall Street.

The mood is likely to be set by the results due out ahead of the market open from a number of firms, including AT&T (T, Fortune 500), Ford (F, Fortune 500) and homebuilder Lennar (LEN, Fortune 500).

Late Wednesday, eBay (EBAY, Fortune 500) reported fourth-quarter results that topped Wall Street's estimates. But the company's forecast for the current quarter and rest of the year disappointed investors.

A number of tech firms, including Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) and Motorola (MOT, Fortune 500), have issued weak outlooks recently, deepening concerns about the economic slowdown.

Recession fears have hammered stocks this month, although the major gauges managed to end the session higher Wednesday. Stocks rallied, lifted in part by talk of a plan to bail out troubled bond insurers.

In global trade, most Asian markets rose for a second session, although Hong Kong stocks finished sharply lower. European markets charged ahead, even after French bank Societe Generale said it had discovered a $7 billion fraud caused by a single trader.