Futures Dip; Wal-Mart Rises, Tesla Falls

Futures for the leading indexes were down a slight fraction ahead of the open after the relatively heavy declines yesterday. Data this morning showed jobless claims rose last week. Existing homes sales data will be released at 10am Eastern.

Shares of Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) are rising, up about 1.5% after the retailer�reported earnings per share that beat estimates but sales that came in just below forecasts. It also raised its dividend by 18%. Wal-Mart’s stock took a hit last week after an executive’s emailed comments of February sales being “a total disaster” were revealed by Bloomberg, though it tried to gloss over that today:

The company�said February sales started slower than planned at Walmart U.S. due in large part to the delay in income tax refunds. As the refund check increased late last week, it�s seeing a more normalized sales pattern, Bill Simon, head of Walmart U.S. said.

Shares of Boeing (BA) are up close to 1% after reports that it’s close to resolving the issue of flammable batteries on its 787 Dreamliner planes:

Senior Boeing executives are scheduled to meet with top officials from the Federal Aviation Administration in Washington to discuss the proposed 10-point package, emphasizing changes to the guts of the plane’s lithium-ion batteries along with a new protective fireproof container, these people said.

Electric-car maker Tesla Motors (TSLA) saw its stock fall more than 5% premarket after it reported a larger-than-expected loss. CEO Elon Musk tried to assuage concerns however:

Musk said the share price drop was due to a misconception about demand for the Model S.

�If we were to close all of our stores today, we�d be sold out basically for the whole year,� he said. �We�ve got reservations for roughly 15,000 cars, over and above what we�ve already delivered.�

Shipments of Model S to�Europe�start in the third quarter this year, and to�Japan�and�Hong Kongin the final months of 2013, the company said yesterday. Tesla is also preparing to sell the car to drivers in�China, said George Blankenship, vice president of sales.