Stocks are set to open lower in cautious trading ahead of a speech from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. Thirty minutes before the start of trading in New York, index futures suggest that both the Dow and the NASDAQ will start the week with modest losses.

The major averages might move in a tight range ahead of Bernanke’s speech at 1:00 p.m. eastern time. The head of the Fed speaks to the Economic Club of Washington and could potentially signal that the Federal Reserve will become more vigilant as the economy improves.

Indeed, rate expectations have shifted somewhat since data released Friday showed the US economy losing 11,000 jobs in November, far less than the 120,000 loss economists had expected.

The dollar has been gaining ground on the euro since that time. After falling back to 1.49 Friday, the euro is off another .0051 to 1.48 this morning. The dollar edged down .25 to 90 against the Japanese yen.

Bonds are seeing modest gains after big losses Friday. The benchmark ten-year Treasury is up 2/32nd and yields 3.46 percent.

Dollar strength and euro weakness has put some pressure on crude and gold. Crude oil is down .28 to $75.09. After tumbling more than $60 Friday, gold is down another $23.5 to $1146 an ounce.

Among the stocks to watch, NY Community Bancorp (NYB) is up 8.9 percent on news the bank bought assets in connection with assets seized from AmTrust Financial. McDermott (MDR) is up 8 percent on news it plans to separate into two companies. Akamai (AKAM) gained 4 percent after the company raised its fourth quarter earnings guidance. American Express (AXP) is higher after BofA/Merrill said the credit card company, as well as Capital One (COF) and Discover (DFS), will benefit from improving credit trends. AMD rose 3.5 percent after Bernstein upgraded shares to Outperform. Bare Escentuals (BARE) lost 5 percent after Goldman Sachs downgraded to Sell.