NEW YORK, May 12 - U.S. stocks were set to open little changed to fractionally lower on Monday before a flood of data this week that may help Wall Street to take the pulse of the world's largest economy. Market watchers said it was difficult to gauge the start of Monday's trading with zigzagging equity index futures. Some traders said sentiment was soured by a weakening U.S. dollar after remarks on Sunday by Treasury Secretary John Snow, who said the dollar was helping U.S. exporters and who called the U.S. economy "soggy." The greenback on Monday fell to its weakest level against the euro in more than four years as markets doubted the United States' determination to maintain its "strong dollar" policy.
"We're probably going to see some profit taking at the open. After Snow's comments over the weekend, people are talking that he supports a weak dollar, which a lot of people don't want," said Steve Kolano, equity trader at The Boston Co. "Given no economic data this morning (ahead of the open), with more coming over the week and after a big rally on Friday, it is not surprising if we see some profit taking at the open." Standard & Poor's 500 stock index futures for June shed gains and were down 1.20 points at 931, while Nasdaq futures for the same month were off 0.30 of a point at 1,143.50 and Dow Jones Industrial futures were off 23 points at 8,555, also shedding mild early gains. After a better-than-expected batch of first-quarter earnings, investors are now demanding proof that the economy is stabilizing, analysts said. As the corporate reporting seasons winds down, investors turn to various data for clues about the economy, with stocks up more than 15 percent from mid-March. The Federal Reserve has hinted that earnings-eroding deflation may be a threat and stocks have since pared gains, though some key market gauges logged their fourth higher week in a row on Friday.
"The futures markets are set to open mixed this morning as investors are putting earnings season behind them and begin to look ahead to economic numbers of which there are quite a few this week," said Harry Michas, stock index futures trader at manmarketmonitor.com. "The numbers are going to have to paint a brighter picture for the economy if the market is going to continue with this rally. There is no doubt that this market is stalled with very light volume as traders await some new news that can refuel the rally." Monday's session will see the Kansas City Fed manufacturing survey for April, due at 11 a.m. (1500 GMT). But later this week, investors will study retail sales, industrial production and inflation at the producer and consumer levels. "It's not like you have a definitive open, you are still overbought and you still have the weaker dollar issue," said Larry Wachtel, analyst at Prudential Securities. "It's helpful for exporting companies but it hurts foreign companies investing in the U.S." Among the handful of key earnings this week are retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and J.C. Penney on Tuesday. Computer maker Dell Computer , chip equipment maker Applied Materials also report this week. Stocks rose on Friday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq chalking up their first four-week winning streak since October. Forecasts from Nvidia Corp. and Intel Corp. lured investors back to the market after two days of declines.//