- Tuesday's Heavy Dose of Data to Dictate 'Risk' Behavior
- Obama says Boosting US Jobs is Top Priority
- More Consumers Giving 'Black Friday' the Cold Shoulder
- Prepare For Large Decline In Stocks, Next Year?
- Appeals Court Denies Microsoft's Alcatel Petition
- HP Comes in As Expected; Is It Time to Buy?
- Cramer: What Monday’s Housing Number Really Means
- Why the Dollar Will Likely Stay Weak for Some Time
- US Officials Press Pay Czar to Ease AIG Curbs: Report
- Can Murdoch Help Bing Challenge Google and Shift the Content Equation?
- HP's Mark Hurd
- HP Comes in As Expected; Is It Time to Buy?
- 9 Stocks That Play Rising Water Costs: Strategists
- Weis' Deal Likely Won't Change Big Money Contracts
- Gold Prices Can Double in 3 Years: Portfolio Manager
- Nov. 23: Unusual Volume Leaders
- Help Wanted—Please Run $4 Billion University
- Apple Comes to AT&T's Rescue
MOST SHARED
- The 'Real' Jobless Rate: 17.5% Of Workers Are Unemployed
- Why Amazon Rules Retail
- Wave of Debt Payments Facing US Government
- Paul: Audit the Fed
- China Eastern to Complete Shanghai Air Buy by End '09
- The Social Media Gaming Threat
- Gold Will Collapse Like Oil Did in 2008: Charts
- JAL Slides to Record Low on Bankruptcy Jitters
- Prepare For Large Decline In Stocks, Next Year?
- Holiday Travel Outlook
Text Size 
Stocks opened lower Friday as Chevron's earnings warning added to investors' worries about earnings and the economic recovery.
In the morning's economic news, the trade deficit narrowed unexpectedly to $26 billion in May, its lowest in 10 years. Meanwhile, import prices rose 3.2 percent in May, while export prices rose 1.1 percent.
And consumer sentiment soured more than expected. The University of Michigan/Reuters consumer-sentiment index dropped to 64.6 in a mid-July reading from 70.8 at the end of June. Economists had expected a more modest drop to 70.
Chevron [CVX
Loading...
()
] issued a profit warning late Thursday, saying second-quarter earnings would be hit by a sharp decline in US refining margins and that any benefits from higher oil prices were largely offset by a weaker dollar.
Adding to the pressure on the energy sector, oil prices fell below $60 a barrel.
General Motors [GMGMQ
Loading...
()
] announced that it's out of bankruptcy much sooner than expected — the process has taken just 40 days, even faster than rival Chrysler's 42-day whirlwind trip in and out of Chapter 11.
The new GM, 61-percent owned by the government, will be much leaner, with only its strongest brands, including Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC and Buick.
AIG [AIG
Loading...
()
] is looking for the government's permisssion to resume paying out retention bonuses, on the heels of a warning from Citi that AIG's equity could be worthless. AIG shares fell more than 4 percent premarket.
Techs will again be in the spotlight following news that Cisco [CSCO
Loading...
()
] s cutting between 1,500 to 2,000 jobs.
Goldman Sachs upgraded its rating on the hardware sector to "attractive" from "neutral," citing the potential for the sector to outperform in the typically strong second half.
Among those upgraded were: Dell [DELL
Loading...
()
], Arrow Electronics, Hewlett-Packard and Seagate Technology. The analysts also raised their price target on Apple [APPL
Loading...
()
].
But they cut their ratings IBM [IBM
Loading...
()
] and Western Digital.
Alcoa [AA
Loading...
()
] shares were under the gun once again as the company's better-than-expected earnings report couldn't outweight worries over an expected weakness in construction likely to hurt the aluminum giant.
- Peter Schacknow, Senior Producer at CNBC.com, contributed to this report
On Tap for Next Week:
MONDAY: Earnings from Philips Electronics, CSX and Novellus
TUESDAY: Earnings from Goldman Sachs, J&J, Intel and Yum Brands
WEDNESDAY: Earnings from Abbott Labs and Gannett
THURSDAY: Earnings from JPMorgan Chase, Nokia, Novartis, Biogen and IBM
FRIDAY: Earnings from Bank of America, Citigroup, GE and Mattel
Send comments to .
Print
Email
- The show attracts a big TV audience every year, but this year it may take on even more importance.
- …you'll want to be prepared. Tips for getting the most out of the post-Thanksgiving shopping frenzy.
- Congressman Ron Paul explains to Squawk Box why he’s pushing legislation to audit the Federal Reserve.
- CNBC’s Phil LeBeau took a test drive of GM’s flagship electric car. Here’s what he thought of the Volt.
- The energy company Power Efficiency is building tools that regulate the power electric motors use.
- CNBC’s technology reporter Jim Goldman guides you through the best gadgets to buy this holiday season.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes