4:56 AM
Wall Street futures point to mixed open
Addison Ray
LONDON | Fri Oct 15, 2010 6:02am EDT
LONDON (Reuters) - Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average and for the S&P 500 both eased 0.1 percent while futures for the Nasdaq 100 rose 0.2 percent, pointing to a mixed open on Wall Street on Friday.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was scheduled to speak at 1215 GMT at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston "Revisiting Monetary Policy in a Low-Inflation Environment" conference.
At 1230 GMT (8:30 a.m. EDT), the Commerce Department will release September retail sales numbers. Economists expected a 0.4 percent increase, a repeat of the August rise. Excluding automobiles, sales were forecast to rise 0.4 percent, compared with a 0.6 percent increase in August.
Google eased fears that big spending would erode margins as its results blew past Wall Street targets, and the web search leader revealed for the first time the strength of its fledgling mobile and online display ad businesses. Frankfurt-listed shares in Google were up 9 percent.
Major U.S. companies reporting results on Friday include General Electric and Mattel.
The Labor Department releases at 1230 GMT the September consumer price index (CPI). Economists in a Reuters survey expect CPI to rise 0.2 percent compared with a 0.3 percent increase in August.
Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, is competing with Russian group X5 to buy up-for-sale grocer Kopeika, business daily Vedomosti reported on Friday. * Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers release preliminary October consumer sentiment index at 1355 GMT. Economists in a Reuters survey expect a reading of 69.0 compared with 68.2 in the final September report.
Other macroeconomic releases on Friday include U.S. business inventories for August at 1400 GMT and Economic Cycle Research Institute's weekly index of economic activity for October 8.
European shares turned negative in morning trade, with miners and oil majors lower after commodity prices edged down. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index slipped 0.1 percent.
Japan's Nikkei average fell 0.9 percent on Friday, hurt by broad profit-taking after a rally on Thursday and as financial stocks tracked their Wall Street peers lower on worries about a widening U.S. foreclosure crisis.
The Dow Jones industrial average dipped 1.51 points, or 0.01 percent, to 11,094.57 on Thursday. The Standard & Poor's 500 dropped 4.29 points, or 0.36 percent, to 1,173.81. The Nasdaq Composite shed 5.85 points, or 0.24 percent, to 2,435.38.
(Reporting by Atul Prakash; Editing by Michael Shields)
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