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Dow to open down after Obama, Bernanke speeches, Lululemon, McDonald's in focus

Published: 13:45 09 Sep 2011 BST

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US markets were poised to open lower on Friday in the fall out from speeches given by President Barack Obama and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke on Thursday.

As of before 8:00am ET, futures on the Dow dropped 27 points, or 0.24%, to 11,196.00, while futures on the S&P 500 were down 15 points, or 0.68%, to 2,197.00 and tech-heavy Nasdaq futures edged down 5.6 points, or 0.47%, to 1,174.40.

In a rare joint session of Congress last night, President Obama called for a much larger than originally hinted US$447 billion plan to stimulate jobs growth, including $253 billion in tax cuts and $194 billion in new spending.

President Obama asked legislators to put their cross-party bickerings aside, and pass the stimulus plan in an effort to cut the staggering 9% unemployment rate. Under the new package, the 2% social security tax cut introduced late last year for one year would be extended for one more year and increased by one percentage point.

The President said that the plan would be "deficit neutral" in the longer term, but would not release specifics on how to pay for the stimulus package until September 19.

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke also gave a speech before markets closed last night, which caused all three main US indexes to shed around 1%. Bernanke reiterated that the Fed would be prepared to use certain "tools" at its disposal to help boost growth, but investors were disappointed that he didn't signal any specific measures yet again.

In other economic news, July wholesale inventory figures will be released at 10:00am ET, with expectations for inventories to rise 0.7%, after a 0.6% increase in June.

In corporate news, shares of Canadian yoga athletic apparel retailer Lululemon (NASDAQ:LULU) (TSE:LLL) dropped more than 2% in pre-market trading. The company, which recently underwent a stock split, beat earnings expectations for the second quarter, posting net income of $38.4 million or 26 cents per share. Comparable store sales increased 20% on a constant dollar basis.

However, its full year earnings outlook came down to $1.10 to $1.14 per share - a result of the stock split - from its previous forecast of $2.10 to $2.16 a share.

McDonald's (NYSE:MCD) also shed around 2.5% before the bell after announcing 3.5% comparable sales growth in August, with 3.9% growth in the US, 2.7% growth in Europe, and a drop of 0.3% in Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa as growth in markets like China and Australia were offset by Japan.

VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN) announced after markets closed yesterday that executive vice president and CFO Brian Robins has resigned to pursue new opportunities. Shares tanked almost 9% ahead of market open on Friday.

In Europe, markets were lower, with Britain's FTSE 100 and Germany's DAX each down around 0.5%.

Commodities

In electronic trading, light crude for October delivery fell 0.92%, or 82 cents, to $88.23 per barrel, while gold futures lost 1.14%, or $21.10, to $1,836.40 per ounce.

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