Wall Street May Open Lower Ahead Of Economic Reports

August 4, 2008 9:12 a.m. EST

New York, NY (AHN) - Wall Street may open on a weak note on Monday, ahead of a series of economic reports and the upcoming interest rate decision amid rising fuel prices.

Reports, including some on personal income data for June, spending, the Federal Reserve's preferred price gauge and factory orders for June, are all due to be released Monday.

While another influence will be on Tuesday, when the Fed make its decision on key interest rates.

At 8:56 a.m. EDT in New York, ahead of the bell, Standard & Poor's 500 Index futures were moving down by 7.07 points or 0.56 percent at 1,260.31 points, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were decreasing 51.70 points or 0.45 percent at 11,326.32 points.

At the same time, NASDAQ-100 Index futures were declining by 14.59 points or 0.63 percent at 2,310.96 points.

In commodities, a light sweet crude-futures barrel for September delivery had moved slightly above $126-a-barrel mark in electronic trading over the weekend.

On Friday, crude advanced by $1.02 to $125.10 a barrel in New York Mercantile Exchange, over indications that Iran will not give up its nuclear program, leading to the rise in the Middle East tension.

On Monday, oil futures retreated by 2 cents to $125.08 a barrel in electronic trading before the bell as a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico and rising tensions in the Middle East are likely to affect the production and supply of oil.

HSBC Holdings PLC led the decline in European markets after it set aside additional money to cover-up the losses related to bad loans in the U.S. subprime mortgage.

The firm decreased by 2 percent following a report on the first-half of the year that saw a drop by 29 percent or $2.9 billion in its profit, compared with profit of $2.4 billion in the year earlier.

Citigroup retreated 9 cents to $18.78 in Germany over reports that New York state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is likely to file charges against the firm, accusing it for fraudulent marketing and sale of troubled auction-rate securities to daily investors.

In currency trading, the yen weakened and changed hands at 107.97 yen per U.S. dollar in Asia. In late New York on late Friday, the Japanese currency was at 107.70 yen against the dollar.