(By Balachander) U.S. stock-index futures pointed to a lower opening on the Wall Street as investors weighed corporate earnings and await a batch of economic reports.
Mini Dow Industrial Average futures shed 22 points to 13,810. The Nasdaq futures fell 5.75 points to 2,731.75. Standard and Poor's 500 futures lost 4.30 points to 1,492.70.
Investors keenly await for announcement from the Fed's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC)'s two-day policy meeting that starts today.
Other economic reports of interest due to be released over the week include: ADP's jobs report, nonfarm payrolls, jobless claims and personal spending.
A report at 10 am ET on Tuesday may show U.S. consumer confidence edged lower for a third month in January to 64.0 from 65.1.
On Monday, U.S. stocks closed on a flat note amid corporate earnings reports and a mixed set of economic data.
Hot Stocks Of The Day: PFE, LLY, EMC, F, VMW, YHOO, GLW, STX, DHI
Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) inched higher in premarket. The New York-based pharmaceutical giant posted a jump in quarterly earnings as a hefty gain from the sale of its Nutrition business boosted results. Adjusted results also topped market expectations.
Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: LLY) posted lower quarterly earnings as patent expirations of anti-psychotic drug Zyprexa continued to drive lower revenue. Yet the results beat Wall Street expectations and the pharmaceutical giant raised its forecast for 2013.
EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) dropped 5.44 percent in premarket after the provider of enterprise storage systems guided earnings for the full year below market expectations. The company, meanwhile, reported better-than-expected results for the fourth quarter.
Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) shed 1.16 percent in premarket. The Detroit-based automaker reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter, driven by an improvement in its American operations. However, the company widened its loss estimate for the Europe region.
VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW), a publicly traded division of EMC, issued revenue guidance that trailed market expectations and shares of the provider of virtualization-based cloud infrastructure services tumbled 18.67 percent in premarket.
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) gained 3.20 percent in premarket after the struggling internet company posted a 20.5 percent growth in quarterly adjusted earnings helped by strong growth in its search revenue. Results exceeded Wall Street expectations.
Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW) gained 3.87 percent in premarket after the glass and ceramics maker's fourth-quarter earnings and revenue beat Wall Street expectations.
Seagate Technology Plc (NASDAQ: STX) slumped 6.20 percent in premarket after the maker of hard drives forecast third-quarter revenue that trailed consensus.
D.R. Horton Inc. (NYSE: DHI) rose 4.04 percent in premarket after the homebuilder posted first-quarter earnings that doubled from last year on higher home sales and prices.
Global Markets
European markets traded mixed, with Germany's DAX down 0.17 percent to trade at 7,819.88. France's CAC40 fell 0.22 percent to trade at 3,772.38. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 gained 0.11 percent to trade at 6,301.20.
Asian markets closed mixed, with China's Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index up 0.53 percent to close at 2,358.98. Japan's Nikkei 225 added 0.39 percent to finish at 10,866.72. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 0.07 percent to end at 23,655.17. India's BSE Sensex ended 0.56 percent lower at 19,990.90.
Commodity & Currency Scan
Ahead of the opening bell, crude oil futures traded 0.09 percent higher at $96.54 per barrel. Gold futures added 0.54 percent to $1,663.80 per ounce.
In the currency market, the euro shed 0.08 percent against the U.S. dollar to 1.3445, while the British pound rose 0.25 percent to 1.5734. The dollar dropped 0.33 percent against the Japanese yen to 90.5600.