By Tomi Kilgore and Tommy Stubbington
U.S. stock futures edged higher early Monday, as investors got a
brief reprieve from the recent drubbing as they awaited retail
sales data.
European markets were broadly lower, as fresh tensions in
Ukraine added to the pressures of last week's technology-led
selloff.
About 90 minutes ahead of the open, Dow Jones Industrial Average
futures gained 29 points, or 0.2%, to 16010.
S&P 500 index futures added five points, or 0.3%, to 1817
and Nasdaq-100 futures gained 10 points, or 0.1%, to 3454. Changes
in stock futures don't always accurately predict stock moves after
the opening bell.
Helping provide an early lift to sentiment, banking giant
Citigroup rose 2.6% in premarket trading after reporting
first-quarter earnings and revenue that exceeded analyst
estimates.
Stocks have come under increasing pressure recently as
previously hot biotechnology and next-generation technology stocks
have taken a beating. The Nasdaq Composite has been hit
particularly hard recently, shedding 3.1% last week to suffer the
biggest weekly percentage loss since June 2012.
The selling began spilling over to larger, blue chip companies
last week, as the Dow Industrials ended last week with the biggest
two-day decline in over two months.
Despite the recent weakness, longer-term investors still believe
the outlook for stocks is favorable, as the fundamentals that have
helped push the market to new highs this year, such as an improving
economy, low interest rates and inflation and an accommodative
Federal Reserve, will eventually stem the selling.
Wayne Kaufman, chief market analyst at New York-based investment
firm Rockwell Securities, said that while he remains bullish
long-term, and some technical signals suggest a short-term rally
can start, he recommends investors hold off on putting new money to
work until the market shows it can respond to positive signals.
"Unfortunately, just because stocks stop going down doesn't mean
they are going up," Mr. Kaufman said.
He said the fact that previous leading stocks haven't sustained
a bounce despite "oversold" technical readings is a concern.
"A market that does not respond to oversold conditions is
dangerous," Mr. Kaufman said. "As we've been stressing, this is a
short-term trader's market."
At 8:30 a.m., retail sales for March are expected to rise 0.8%
on the month, or by 0.4% when excluding auto sales.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.638% from a
seven week low of 2.619% late Friday.
Crude oil futures slipped 0.1% to $103.66 a barrel, after
settling at a seven-week low on Friday, while gold futures gained
0.3% to $1,322.50 an ounce. The dollar gained some ground against
the euro and the yen.
In Europe, Stoxx Europe 600 declined 0.4%, and was headed for
the lowest close in three weeks. Adding to recent investor concerns
over valuation, Ukraine mobilized its military over the weekend to
counter pro-Russian militants who extended their control across
several cities in the east of the country.
Germany's DAX 30 index gave up 0.5%, France's CAC 40 fell 0.4%
and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 lost 0.4%.
"Tensions in Eastern Ukraine are playing a part in containing
risk-taking in the new week," said foreign-exchange analysts at BNP
Paribas.
Separately, comments from European Central Bank President Mario
Draghi over the weekend that the strength of the euro could prompt
further monetary easing to prevent inflation rate from falling too
low had little effect on the currency or equity markets.
Asian markets were mostly lower. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average
lost 0.4% to a six-month low, after suffering last week the biggest
weekly percentage decline since March 2011. China's Shanghai
Composite inched up 0.1%.
In corporate news, TIAA-CREF is set to announce it is buying
Nuveen Investments for $6.25 billion including debt, The Wall
Street Journal reported. The acquisition would move TIAA-CREF up to
become one of the U.S.'s biggest money managers.
WebMD rallied 12% after the online health portal said it expects
first-quarter results will be at least at the high end of
expectations, helped recent improvement in sales activity.
Write to Tomi Kilgore at tomi.kilgore@wsj.com and Tommy
Stubbington at tommy.stubbington@wsj.com