Stocks are set to open lower, as investors digest the latest round of earnings news and wait for a report on consumer confidence. Thirty minutes before the opening bell on Wall Street, stock index futures indicate that the Dow Jones Industrial Average might lose 40 or 50 points at the open.
Dow component IBM is trading down 1 percent after announcing plans to buy SPSS for $1.2 billion, or $50 per share. SPSS rallied more than 40 percent.
Meanwhile, the earnings news is mixed. Oil giant BP is down 1.8 percent after reporting quarterly earnings of $1.01 per share on $54.8 billion in revenues. Analysts were looking for 92 cents on $64 billion.
Valero (VLO) slid after reporting a 48-cent per share loss for the most recent quarter. Amgen (AMGN) gained on better-than-expected profit results and after announcing a partnership with GlaxoSmithKline to market a bone drug.
Commodity-related stocks might see relatively weakness after crude oil slid 43 cents to $67.95 a barrel. Gold fell $5 to $951.30 an ounce.
In economic news, the latest S&P/Case Shiller Home Price Index fell -17.06 percent in May, which was better than the -18.12 percent the month before and also ahead of economist estimates (-17.9 percent).
A report on consumer confidence is due out at 10:00 a.m. eastern time. Economists expect the index to edge down to 49 in July, down from 49.3 in June.
Bonds are seeing modest gains ahead of the news. The benchmark ten-year Treasury is up 6/32nd and yields 3.69 percent.
The dollar gained .61 to 94.57 on the yen. The euro slipped .0014 to 1.4228 on the buck.