Stock Futures Fall With More Earnings Due

U.S. stock futures edged lower Friday after a solid but not spectacular set of results from tech stalwart International Business Machines, with investors also eyeing the quarterly financials from General Electric and Citigroup for signals that recent turnarounds in stock-market performance from the large-cap behemoths may accelerate.

S&P 500 futures edged 0.7 of a point lower at 1,432.70 and Nasdaq 100 futures were down 3 points at 1,803.00. Dow industrial futures slipped 15 points.

U.S. stocks closed lower Thursday as earnings forecasts from technology icon Apple Inc. (AAPL) disappointed investors, sending the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite to a loss of almost 1.5 precent. The Dow industrials dropped 9 points and the S&P 500 ended 4.2 points lower.

General Electric and Citigroup are among the companies due to release earnings on Friday.

Investors have been looking for signs that GE's push into faster-growing businesses - as demonstrated by a deal reached with Abbott Laboratories (ABT) late Thursday to buy two diagnostics businesses for $8.1 billion - will pay off.

Operating expense growth has been an area of concern from the world's top bank, Citigroup. Rivals including Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase and Merrill Lynch have recently posted strong results from capital markets arms.

IBM shares slumped 5 precent in trading in Frankfurt. Though the company's profit rose 11 precent on 7.5 precent revenue growth, some investors had looked for more. Its goal of 10 precent earnings per share growth in 2007 is at the lower end of its long-term 10 precent to 12 precent target.

Also of note, Morgan Stanley' (MS)s real-estate arm agreed to buy upscale hotel operator CNL Hotels & Resorts for $6.6 billion.

The economic calendar includes the University of Michigan's consumer confidence survey for January, which may have climbed as gasoline prices cooled off.

February-dated crude oil futures edged up a penny to $50.49 a barrel in electronic trade.

The dollar was broadly steady against the euro and the yen.

In overseas trade, the Nikkei 225 closed 0.4 percent lower, and Germany's DAX-30 index was down 0.3 precent in late morning trade.
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