(By Salman - iStockAnalyst Writer)US stock futures edged higher on Tuesesday amid hopes of a strong economic recovery.
At 8:26 am ET, Standard & Poor's 500 Index futures gained 5.30 points to 914.30. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures increased 5 points to 8407. Nasdaq Composite Index futures rose 6.75 points to 1403.
The
Commerce Department said on Tuesday that U.S. trade gap with the rest of the world widened in March for the first time in eight months as exports decreased faster than imports. The trade deficit jumped by 5.5% to $27.6 billion in March from $26.1 billion in February, the report showed.
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal,
Bank of America Corp. (
NYSE: BAC) has generated $1.2 billion from the sale of 2.21 billion shares in China Construction Bank for about $7.3 billion.
According to media reports,
Citigroup Inc, (
NYSE: C), is utilizing almost all of the money it received under government bank bailout program to make new loans. The bank, which has recorded huge losses on its mortgage portfolio, has received $45 billion injection from TARP and the U.S. government agreed to share losses on $300.8 billion of troubled assets.
Early on Tuesday,
FactSet Research Systems Inc. (
NYSE: FDS) announced that it is raising its quarterly dividend by 11% to 20 cents a share from 18 cents, payable June 16 to holders of record May 29.
Late on Monday, the second largest US automaker
Ford Motor Co. (
NYSE: F) said that it plans to sell 300 million shares of its common stock and use some of the proceeds to pay cash into its retiree health-care trust. The company said that it expects to grant underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 45 million shares.
Meanwhile, software giant
Microsoft Corp. (
NASDAQ: MSFT) sold a $3.75 billion debt issue in what was its first-ever long-term bond offering.
Elsewhere, the
Commerce Ministry of China said that exports slumped for the sixth straight month. The world's fastest growing economy witnessed a 22.6 percent drop in exports in April from a year earlier, to $91.9 billion. However, investments in factories and property development jumped 30.5 percent during the first four months of the year to 3.71 trillion yuan ($543.2 billion)
US stocks finished lower on Monday as three major US banks namely
U.S. Bancorp (
NYSE: USB),
Capital One Financial Corp. (
NYSE: COF) and
BB&T Corp.(
NYSE: BBT) announced that they will issue nearly $7 billion in new stock in order to repay TARP fund.
European stocks were mostly higher in afternoon trade. At 13:18 pm London time, the UK FTSE dropped 13.70 points or 0.31% to 4,421.54. The German DAX and French CAC increased 0.72% and 0.27% respectively.
Asian stocks finished mixed. The Nikkei 225 fell 153.37 points or 1.62% to 9,298.61. The Hang Seng index of Hong Kong rose 65.69 points or 0.38% to 17,153.64.
NYMEX Crude oil for June delivery climbed as much as $1.18 or 2% to $59.68 a barrel.
Disclosure: Author does not own any of the stocks discussed here.
