Stocks on recession watch again

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Investors will apparently be on recession watch again Friday as they await a new set of readings on the economy before making a move on the day ahead of a long-holiday weekend.

About three hours before the market open, futures were mixed, with a comparison to fair value pointed to a flat open.

All three indices closed lower on Thursday after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told the Senate Banking Committee that the "the outlook for the economy has worsened in recent months," even if he believes it will avoid a recession.

Bernanke's predecessor, Alan Greenspan, told a Thursday meeting of energy executives in Houston that the U.S. economy is "clearly on the edge" of a recession and the chance a downturn will occur is 50% or better.

At 8:30 a.m. ET, investors will get a Labor Department reading reading on import and export prices as well as the Empire State Index from the New York Fed on manufacturing activity in its region. At 9:15 a.m. ET, the Fed will release its readings on production and capacity utilization at the nation's factories, and just after the market open, the University of Michigan will give its first reading on consumer confidence in February.

Investors will be looking for clues about the economy and recession risks from Fed Governor Frederic Mishkin, who is slated to speak on "tools for responding to financial disruptions" in New Hampshire at 1:15 p.m. ET. Mishkin is a close ally of Bernanke on the Fed, having written a book with him before the two joined the central bank.

In corporate news Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) has barred investors from withdrawing their money from one of its hedge funds specializing in corporate debt after they tried to pull out 30% of the fund's roughly $500 million in assets, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Shares of Dow component Citigroup slipped 0.8% in early Frankfurt trading.

Shares of Kraft Foods (KFT) could get a lift after Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), the investment firm run by Warren Buffett, revealed in a regulatory filing that it had become its largest shareholder after buying 132.4 million shares, or about an 8.6% stake. Shares of Kraft gained 3.1% in after-hours trading following the filing. The filing also disclosed Berkshire had bought 1.5 million shares of European drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), lifting it shares 2.1% in London trading early Friday.

Earnings reports are due before the bell from teen retailer Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (ANF) and food companies Hormel Foods Corp (HRL, Fortune 500). and Campbell Soup Co. (CPB, Fortune 500). All are forecast to post improved results.

The New York Times Co (NYT). is cutting 100 jobs from the newsroom of its flagship paper, Times editor Bill Keller told employees in a meeting Thursday. The cut would represent about 7.5% of editorial staff. Privately-held Tribune Co. announced newsroom job cuts earlier this week at its Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times units, as newspapers try to respond to declining ad revenue and readership in the face of growth by online media.

UAL Corp. (UAUA, Fortune 500), parent of No. 2 U.S. carrier United Airlines, and Continental Airlines (CAL, Fortune 500) are also said to be in deep talks about a possible merger. But No. 4 Continental needs to wait until partner Northwest Airlines (NWA, Fortune 500) completes its own rumored deal with No. 3 Delta Air Lines (DAL, Fortune 500) because Northwest holds so-called golden shares in Continental and can block a deal there unless it enters into a combination of its own.