Stocks Point to Uneven Start
A WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE NEWS ROUNDUPOctober 19, 2007 9:05 a.m.
Stock futures were mixed Friday after oil prices hovered near $90 a barrel and the dollar hit another low against the euro, though technology stocks could gain after Google's strong results.
About an hour before the start of trading, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures had fallen 50 to 13890. S&P 500 futures lost 6.1 to 1540.7, and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 3.75 to 2209.75. Changes in futures do not always accurately predict early market moves after the opening bell.
Crude-oil futures briefly touched a new high -- $90.02 a barrel -- in electronic trading as the weak dollar, Iraq supply fears and a bomb attack on the former prime minister of Pakistan all helped push prices higher.
The euro hit a new all-time high against the dollar Friday, breaking through the previous record, set a day earlier, as the U.S. currency remained under pressure. In morning European trading, the euro bought $1.4319 -- surpassing the mark of $1.4310 set Thursday -- before settling back slightly to $1.4306.