US Stock Futures Edge Lower





U.S. stock futures on Friday pointed to a re-run of the prior aimless session, with the market focusing on individual companies like Palm after handset maker's light sales outlook.

S&P 500 futures fell eight-tenths of a point to 1160.50 and Nasdaq 100 futures slipped three-quarters of a point to 1941.00. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 6 points.

U.S. stocks finished an uneven Thursday with major indexes split, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 45 points to take a winning run to eight sessions, while the broader S&P 500 finished fractionally lower. A decline in weekly jobless claims and tepid inflation was countered by rumors of another discount rate hike and jitters around Greece.

Friday's session could be impacted by quadruple witching, when contracts for stock index futures, stock index options, stock options and single stock futures all expire.

Palm Inc. (PALM) dropped 15% in premarket trade after the company's weaker-than-forecast sales outlook for the fourth quarter. Palm lost $18.5 million in the third quarter.

Tim Long, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets, said customers "have little interest" in Palm's devices and operating system as he kept an underperform rating with a $4 price target. He also doesn't think Palm will be purchased by a rival anytime soon.

"We think an acquisition is less and less likely as consumers clearly aren't interested in the OS and generally in the handset market, larger vendors tend to wait for smaller vendors to approach zero before they think about acquisition," he said.

U.S. listed shares of Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LYG) jumped 9% in premarket trade after the partly U.K. government-held lender said it would be profitable in 2010.

Best Buy Co., Inc. (BBY) rose nearly 3% on an upgrade to buy from neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Oil futures fell under $82 a barrel, while the British pound slumped on jitters on the upcoming election.

Asian markets ended mostly higher Friday, with the Nikkei 225 up 0.8% in Tokyo, and the banking news helped push the FTSE 100 up by 0.6% in London.

-By Steve Goldstein;44 2078 429 424; AskNewswires@dowjones.com

Among the companies whose shares are expected to actively trade in Friday's session are Palm Inc. (PALM), SunPower Corp. (SPWRA, SPWRB) and AP Pharma Inc. (APPA).

Smart-phone company Palm Inc.'s (PALM) fiscal third-quarter loss narrowed--even after excluding the effects of a large gain--but that promising sign was tempered by a decline in unit sales to retail customers. Shares sank 14% to $4.84 in late trading.

Solar-panel maker SunPower concluded an internal accounting investigation related to its Philippines operations and said it would restate several of the company's financial statements. Shares fell 9.4% to $19.98 after hours.

AP Pharma said U.S. regulators need more answers about the company's lead drug candidate, a treatment for chemotheraphy-induced nausea, before they can approve the company's new-drug application. Shares plunged 51% to $1 premarket.

Addus HomeCare Corp.'s (ADUS) fourth-quarter loss widened, despite higher revenue, on rising operating expenses and weak results in the home health segment, which was weighed down by a slowdown in admissions. Shares plunged 15% to $7.54 in after-hours trading as the provider of in-home nursing and rehabilitative therapies saw results widely miss Wall Street estimates.

Goldman Sachs upgraded Best Buy Co. (BBY) to buy from neutral, on valuation and hopes for a stronger 2010. With the shares trading at "one of the lowest multiples in hardlines retailing," the firm predicts two positives now drive the stock higher: "the market's recognition that upside risk to 2010/2011 results from fresh TV product matches downside risk from margin contraction; and, deployment of the firm's cash horde and free cash flow." Shares rose 3.3% to $41.80 premarket.

Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LYG) Friday surprised investors and shareholders by saying it expects to return to profit this year as its trading performance picked up and impairments eased after two years of hefty losses.

Oppenheimer cut its rating on Synaptics Inc. (SYNA) to perform from outperform, saying channel checks suggest the maker of interfaces for portable electronics' mobile business is continuing to struggle with share loss and average selling price erosion. "These factors are undercutting the lift Synaptics should be enjoying from the volume growth in capacitive touch handsets," the firm wrote. Shares slipped 1.4% to $27.27 premarket.

Janney upgraded Tetra Tech Inc. (TTEK) to buy from neutral as the provider of consulting, engineering and technical services' shares have suffered since it said in January that fiscal 2010 earnings would be below views because of project delays. "We thought the stock would settle into the mid-20s while investors awaited more positive news that would be a catalyst for recovery; however, it has settled closer to $20 and is oversold in our view," the firm said.

Trina Solar Ltd. (TSL) priced its offer of at least 7.9 million American depositary shares at a 1.4% discount to Thursday's close as it raises funds for expansion. Shares slipped 1.7% to $20.19 premarket.


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Cintas Corp.'s (CTAS) fiscal third-quarter profit dropped 32% as high unemployment continued to hurt demand. But results for the uniform and business-supplies company slightly topped its guidance.

ICX Technologies Inc.'s (ICXT) fourth-quarter loss widened slightly on lower sales, although margins improved. Revenue for the maker of homeland-security products topped Wall Street's expectations, though its loss was bigger than expected. Shares rose 9.4% to $3.73 premarket.

Perry Ellis International Inc. (PERY) swung to a fiscal fourth-quarter profit following prior-year write-downs. The clothing maker posted its first quarter of revenue growth over the past year and kept margins high by avoiding the steep markdowns of a year earlier.