NEW YORK, Jan 26 - U.S. stocks are set to open slightly lower on Monday, as investors strike a cautious note and brace for a deluge of earnings reports. This week marks one of the busiest in corporate America's quarterly reporting period. About 140, or almost 30 percent, of companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 index are due to release results this week. Equity index futures pointed to a slightly lower open. Standard & Poor's 500 stock index futures for March were off 1.70 points, while Nasdaq futures for the same month were down 4.00 points. Dow industrials futures were off 11 points. "We're looking at a bit of downward action early on, but nothing too extreme," said Tom Schrader, managing director of U.S. equity trading at Legg Mason Wood Walker in Baltimore. Weakness in European and Asian markets would carry over to U.S. stock trading at the open, he added. "We're not going to see a tremendous amount of economic news today," Schrader added. "We have a few bellwether stocks reporting, but for the most part most of the earnings are out later this week. Some of this early downward action is probably a bit of carry-over from Friday."
Friday marked the first down week in more than a month for the Dow and Nasdaq. The Dow ended the week down 0.30 percent, breaking eight straight weeks of gains, while the Nasdaq fell 0.78 percent, ending a six-week long winning streak. But the broader S&P rose 0.15 percent, its ninth straight up week. While earnings delivered so far have generally been robust, many investors say that companies have not given forecasts bullish enough to support the stock market's big rally that began in March 2003. Before the bell, Schering-Plough Corp. shares declined after the drugmaker reported a fourth-quarter net loss, as it took a big charge for job cuts and sales of its allergy and hepatitis medicines plunged. Excluding charges, the company earned 1 cent a share, below Wall Street's average forecast of 3 cents. Other companies in the earnings spotlight include Dow components McDonald's Corp. and American Express Co. , both scheduled to release results Monday afternoon. In other earnings news before the open, Kimberly-Clark Corp. posted its first rise in quarterly earnings in more than a year, boosted by share gains in the U.S. diaper market and the weaker dollar. The household products maker also forecast its current-quarter profit would rise over the prior-year period.//