NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- U.S. stock futures were edging lower Friday as investors awaited a consumer sentiment report and remained jittery about the ongoing budget negotiations in Washington.
Lawmakers must agree to an emergency budget deal by Monday in order to allow key federal government services to continue running through Dec. 15 from the start of the new fiscal year on Oct. It's estimated that a U.S. government shutdown could reduce economic growth in the fourth quarter by up to 1.4 percentage points.
Futures for the S&P 500 were falling 6.5 points, or 5.62 points below fair value, to 1,686. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 45 points, or 32.30 points below fair value, to 15,216. Futures for the Nasdaq were dipping 10.75 points, or 10.14 points below fair value, to 3,215.25.
BlackBerry (BBRY) shares were declining 4.15% to $7.62 in premarket trading. The company said last week it would report a loss of nearly $1 billion when it releases fiscal second-quarter earnings on Friday. The loss includes more than $900 million in charges to write down the value of its unsold smartphones. BlackBerry canceled Friday's conference call with analysts to discuss earnings in light of Fairfax's letter of intent that "contemplates" buying BlackBerry for $9 a share, or $4.7 billion. Fairfax is BlackBerry's largest shareholder. J.C. Penney (JCP) shares were plunging 8.35% to $9.55. The company said it plans to sell 84 million common shares. Penney said proceeds from the offering would be used for general corporate purposes. It also granted Goldman Sachs, the underwriter, a 30-day option to purchase up to 12.6 million more shares. Separately, J.C. Penney disclosed in a regulatory filing that its controller, Mark Sweeney, left the company last week. Ford (F) CEO Alan Mulally is one of the leading candidates to become the new CEO of Microsoft (MSFT), AllThingsD reported, citing sources close to the situation. Mullally denied earlier this month he was leaving the automaker. People with knowledge of the situation told AllThingsD that while the 68-year-old Mulally wasn't seeking the job at first, he has become more amenable to the idea in recent weeks. Microsoft shares were rising 0.5% to $32.93 in premarket trading. Nike (NKE) was surging 5.91% to $74.50. The athletic shoes and apparel maker, said fiscal first-quarter net income rose 38% from a year earlier and per-share profit of 86 cents a share topped Wall Street expectations. Nike said revenue in the quarter rose 8% to $6.97 billion. Nike, dealing with a growth slowdown in China, said it expects China revenue to grow in the second quarter and be roughly flat for the year as it works to turnaround results. The Bureau of Economic Analysis is expected at 8:30 a.m. EDT on Friday to report that personal income rose 0.4% in August after gaining 0.1% in July. Meanwhile personal spending is predicted to have edged up 0.3% after a 0.1% rise. At 9:55 a.m., the final September estimate on University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index is expected to come in at 78 versus 76.8 in the preliminary reading. The data will be interspersed with appearances from Federal Reserve officials. Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren is scheduled to make opening remarks to a New York Fed payments conference in New York at 8:30 am. And at 2 p.m., New York Fed President William Dudley is expected to give a speech on the economy in Syracuse, N.Y. Major U.S. stock markets rebounded Thursday after a five-day losing streak for the S&P 500, its longest losing streak since December, as the latest jobless claims numbers provided a constructive read on the labor market ahead of next week's widely watched monthly government jobs report. There was also hope that Washington's fiscal drama will come to a halt even if it means an 11th-hour budget deal. The DAX in Germany was slipping 0.44% while the FTSE 100 was falling 0.71%. The Hong Kong Hang Seng closed up 0.35% while the Nikkei 225 fell 0.26%. The benchmark 10-year Treasury was rising 4/32, lowering the yield to 2.637%. December gold futures were slipping $3 to $1,333.20 an ounce while November crude oil futures were up 10 cents to $102.76 a barrel. Follow @atwtse -- Written by Andrea Tse in New York >To contact the writer of this article, click here: Andrea Tse.>
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