Wall Street set for weak start

When Wall Street nearly collapsed

Would panic prevail? That was the question gripping the world in the days surrounding the fall of Lehman Brothers on Sept. 15, 2008. One year after that terrifying Monday, the people who struggled to cope with the financial crisis share what they were thinking as chaos broke out.

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- U.S. stocks were expected to open lower Friday after General Electric posted lower-than-expected revenue and Bank of America reported a worse-than-expected loss.

S&P 500, Nasdaq-100 and Dow Jones industrial average futures were slightly lower.

Futures measure current index values against their perceived future performance and offer an indication of how markets may open when trading begins.

Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Jefferies & Co., said the "disappointing news" from Bank of America and GE "took a little bite out of futures in the initial reaction."

But he said that the declines were slight, and pre-market trading volume was slim, meaning there was a chance for stock market recovery later in the day, especially considering the positive tone of the GE report.

"The important thing is that they saw stabilization," said Hogan, referring to GE.

Stocks have been on a roll recently. The Dow hit a fresh one-year high Thursday and closed above the 10,000 mark for the second straight session. A 3% spike in oil prices lifted energy stocks like Chevron (CVX, Fortune 500) and Exxon Mobil (XOM, Fortune 500).

Company results: Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) reported a third-quarter loss of 26 cents per share, which was worse than the loss of 21 cents per share projected by a Thomson Reuters consensus of analysts.

Bank of America also fell behind expectations on revenue, reporting $26 billion for the third quarter, compared to the Thomson Reuters forecast of $27.6 billion.

General Electric (GE, Fortune 500) reported earnings of 28 cents per share, which was higher than expected, and revenue of $37.8 billion, which was lower than forecast.

Analysts had expected GE to report third-quarter EPS of 20 cents and revenue of $39.5 billion. The stock price slipped slightly in pre-market trading.

Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) reported results late Thursday that surpassed Wall Street's estimates and said that the worst of the recession is over.

Tech bellwether IBM (IBM, Fortune 500) also posted better-than-expected earnings Thursday. But shares dropped in after-hours trading as investors expressed disappointment with its lower revenue.

Economy: A reading on industrial production and capacity utilization is due out at 9:15 a.m. ET.

That's followed by the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment survey, which comes out at 10 a.m. ET.

World markets: Stocks finished mixed in Asia. The Nikkei in Japan rose slightly while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index posted mild losses. Major European indexes were lower in midday trading, losing their earlier gains.

Money and oil: The dollar was mixed versus major international currencies, rising versus the euro and the yen but slipping against the British pound.

The price of oil eased 39 cents to $77.19 a barrel in electronic trading.