Tuesday, November 20, 2012 8:20:30 AM

How is the stock market today? U.S. stock futures inched up on Tuesday pointing towards a cautious start on Wall Street as investors mood turned somber following downgrade of France from its top notch triple A rating by Moody’s rating agency late on Monday  even as quarterly earnings from Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) will be closely monitored following Dell’s (NASDAQ: DELL) tepid results.


At around 6:30 a.m. EST, futures on Dow Jones Industrial Average inched up 0.02%, those on Nasdaq 100 Index gained 0.13% while futures on S&P 500 Index added 0.07%.

Elsewhere in Europe, equities mostly traded in red territory after Moody’s Investors Service downgraded France by a notch, citing country’s fragile fiscal outlook. The Credit rating agency also doubted whether the French economy will be able to show resiliency in the backdrop of more “euro area shocks” in future. The Pan European Stoxx 600 was almost flat while France’s CAC40 slipped 0.16%.

Asian share also ended lower on Tuesday as market sentiment was weighed by the downgrade of France.

On U.S. economic data front, the Commerce Department is scheduled to release its monthly report on housing starts at 8:30 a.m. EST. Economists polled by Reuters are expecting 850,000 new housing starts in October, compared to 872,000 in September while new building permits are expected at 865,000 in October, down from 894,000 in the prior month.

At 12: 15 p.m. EST, Federal Reserve’s Chairman, Ben Bernanke is scheduled to deliver a speech at Economic Club of New York.

On earnings front, Dow Component, Hewlett-Packard is due to report its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings ahead of the morning bell.

Food manufacturer, H J Heinz (NYSE: HNZ), Best Buy Co. Inc, (NYSE: BBY) and Campbell Soup Company (NYSE: CPB) are also slated to report quarterly results on Tuesday.

In some other markets, crude oil futures fell 0.25% to $85.96 a barrel while gold futures for December delivery slipped 0.03% to $1,733.80 an ounce.

 

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