U.S. stock-index futures fell. General Electric Co. and Microsoft Corp. shares declined in Europe. Standard & Poor's 500 Index futures expiring in September shed 2.3 to 1132.60 as of 8:20 a.m. in London. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slipped 22 to 10,370 and Nasdaq-100 Index futures dropped 7 to 1472.50. General Electric, the world's biggest company by market value, fell 32 cents to $32.53 in Germany. Microsoft, the No. 1 software maker, declined 13 cents to $28.16. FedEx Corp., Worthington Industries Inc., Micron Technology Inc. and Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. are among S&P 500 companies scheduled to report earnings today.
FedEx, the world's largest overnight package-delivery company, is expected to earn $1.33 in its fiscal fourth quarter according to the average estimate of 12 analysts polled by Thomson Financial. The company will release results before exchanges open. The shares didn't trade in Europe. Worthington, a maker of automotive body panels and other steel products, also reports before markets open. The shares didn't trade in Europe. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc., the second-largest U.S. cigarette maker, may be active. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the Internal Revenue Service approved the company's $3 billion purchase of British American Tobacco Plc's Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., the No. 3 U.S. cigarette maker. R.J. Reynolds shares jumped $4.01, or 6.1 percent, to $69.91 in trading after the official close of U.S. markets. The stock didn't trade in Europe. Micron, the world's second-biggest computer memory- chipmaker, may say fiscal third-quarter net income was 7 cents a share, according to the average estimate of 21 analysts surveyed by Thomson. The company is expected to report after exchanges close. The shares fell 15 cents to $13.71 in Germany.
Bed Bath & Beyond, the largest U.S. housewares retailer, is also expected to announce earnings after markets close. The shares didn't trade in Europe. U.S. stocks rose yesterday, led by communications-equipment makers such as JDS Uniphase Corp. and Lucent Technologies Inc., after telephone companies said they will invest to upgrade their networks. The S&P 500 climbed 4.11, or 0.4 percent, to 1134.41. The Nasdaq Composite Index, which gets 40 percent of its value from computer companies, advanced 19.77, or 1 percent, to 1994.15, the index's biggest gain in a week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 23.60, or 0.2 percent, to 10,395.07. ///www.bloomberg.com