By Barbara Kollmeyer, MarketWatch
MADRID (MarketWatch) -- Stock futures pointed to a weaker open
for Wall Street on Monday as China-growth concerns bubbled to the
surface again and raised questions as to whether the record run for
Wall Street is going to hit a speed bump soon.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJZ4) fell 49
points, or 0.3%, to 17,163, while those for the S&P 500 index
(SPZ4) lost 9.1 points, or 0.5%, to 1,994.70. Tech futures were
pointing to even bigger opening losses later, with Nasdaq-100
(NDZ4) futures off 23 points, or 0.6%, to 4,070. Read: Russell 2000
'death cross' looms
The Chicago Fed national activity index for August is due at
8:30 a.m. Eastern Time, while home sales for August are due at 10
a.m. Eastern. A couple of Fed speakers are also on the calendar,
with New York Fed President William Dudley due to speak at
Bloomberg Markets Most Influential Summit at 10 a.m. Eastern.
Dudley is a voting member of the Fed policy committee.
At 7:30 p.m. Eastern, Minneapolis Fed President Narayana
Kocherlakota, also a voting member, will give a speech on the
objectives of monetary policy to the Economic Club of Marquette
County.
Clues about the Fed's timing intention on hiking rates and news
from China are what traders will be looking out for, said Joao
Monteiro, analyst at Valutrades.
China worries festering: Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell to
two-month lows on Monday as traders fretted ahead of the HSBC
estimate of China's purchasing managers index for September due
after the close of U.S. markets.
Any number under 50 -- indicating contraction -- could mean more
losses for Asia markets, especially barring meaningful stimulus
measures. At a G-20 meeting over the weekend, China's Finance
Minister Lou Jiwei said country is facing downward pressure, but
won't "make major policy adjustments" due to changes in any
individual economic indicator.
"We're not going to see this wall of money thrown at the Chinese
slowdown," Stuart Beavis, head of institutional equity derivatives
at Vantage Capital Markets in Hong Kong, told Bloomberg News.
U.S. stocks finished a volatile session on Friday mixed, but the
Dow industrials (DJI) notched their 18th record close this year.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (BABA) was the big spotlight for that
session, soaring 36% in its debut.
Stocks to watch: Investors may continue to watch shares of
Alibaba for further action on Monday. The IPO is now officially the
world's biggest as bankers are exercising their option to sell more
shares, Dow Jones Newswires reported Sunday, citing unnamed
sources.
AutoZone Inc. (AZO) will release results ahead of the market's
open.
Dresser-Rand Group Inc. (DRC) was rising in premarket trade
after German engineering group Siemens AG announced a deal to buy
the U.S. oil-equipment maker for $7.6 billion.
Other markets: Silver (SIZ4) hit four-year lows on Monday on
dollar strength and concerns about a sooner-than-expected U.S. rate
hike. Gold (GCZ4) was off another $2 to $1,214.80 an ounce. The
dollar itself softened a bit on profit-taking.
In London, shares of U.K. grocer Tesco PLC fell more than 8%
after a profit warning due to an accounting error. China worries
took a toll on mining shares, cutting into the FTSE 100 index ,
with other European indexes also down.
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