Reply #3: U.S. Stock-Index Futures Retreat on Concern Economic Recovery Is Faltering [View All]

[Pale Blue Dot]

U.S. stock futures slid, indicating the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index will post its longest losing streak since October 2008, amid concern that growth in the world’s largest economy is faltering.

ConocoPhillips (COP), the third-biggest U.S. oil company, lost 0.8 percent in German trading as the price of crude oil declined. Alcoa Inc. (AA) and Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX) also retreated in European trading. NYSE Euronext declined 2.2 percent in France after reporting lower profit.

S&P 500 futures expiring in September fell 0.4 percent to 1,274.3 at 6:11 a.m. in New York, signaling the benchmark gauge may retreat for a seventh consecutive day. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures lost 41 points, or 0.3 percent, to 11,999 today.

“The markets are discounting a significant amount of negative news,” said Bob Parker, a London-based senior adviser at Credit Suisse Asset Management, on Bloomberg Television. “The downside on equities is very limited. Investor cash positions are very high, corporate cash positions are very high and valuations are cheap.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-02/u-s-stock-index-futures-retreat-on-concern-economic-recovery-is-faltering.html