Futures Shave Losses After Retail Sales Data

Published Mon, May 13 2013 8:48 AM EDTUpdated Fri, Sep 13 2013 4:33 PM EDT

U.S. stock index futures pared some losses Monday after the better-than-expected data on April retail sales, but remained in the red following last week's rally that pushed the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the to new record highs.

Major averages finished higher for the third straight week, with the Dow and S&P 500 hitting a new record high on Friday.

On the economic front, retail sales unexpectedly rose 0.1 percent in April, according to the Commerce Department, after a revised 0.5 percent decline in March. Economists surveyed by Reuters had expected sales to slip 0.3 percent. Business inventories for March will be released at 10 am ET. Economists expect a gain of 0.3 percent, according to Reuters, versus a 0.1 percent rise in February.

Dell edged lower as activist investor Carl Icahn pushes forward in an attempt to take over the company and overtake a move from Chairman Michael Dell to take the company private.

Earnings season will take a quieter turn this week, with just two Dow components and 12 S&P 500 companies posting first quarter numbers.

Videogame publisher Take Two Interactive is scheduled to report results after the closing bell.

So far, 90 percent of S&P 500 companies have posted quarterly results, with 67 percent topping earnings expectations and 24 percent missing forecasts, according to Reuters. If all remaining companies post numbers in line with estimates, earnings will be up 5.3 percent on last year.

However, sales numbers have come in 1 percent below estimates on average, with only 46 percent of companies beating their revenue projections.

Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Federal Reserve may be getting ready to scale back its $85 billion-a-month bond-buying program in careful steps, although the timing of when that will start is still being debated.

Fed officials scheduled to speak this week include Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker, Fed Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin and Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota.

Meanwhile, the dollar weakened to a new four-and-a-half year low against the yen early on Monday, after G-7 finance officials gave Japan's ultra-loose monetary policies the green light at a meeting over the weekend.

Most Asia stocks closed in positive territory on Monday and the Shanghai Composite pared losses following a raft of lower-than-expected Chinese economic data.

However, shares in Europe were mostly lower, with euro zone finance ministers set to meet in Brussels later on Monday to discuss bank bailouts and the prospects of a banking union. They are also expected to sign off on the latest tranche of aid for Greece.

Later in the day, the larger Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) will meet, also in Brussels.

—By CNBC's JeeYeon Park. Follow JeeYeon on Twitter: @JeeYeonParkCNBC

Coming Up This Week:

MONDAY: Business inventories, Sodastream analyst day; Earnings from Take Two Interactive
TUESDAY: Small business optimism index, import/export prices, Morgan Stanley shareholder mtg
WEDNESDAY: MBA mortgage applications, PPI, Empire state mfg survey, Treasury international capital, industrial production, housing market index, e-commerce retail sales, oil inventories, AIG shareholder mtg; Earnings from Deere, Macy's, Cisco
THURSDAY: CPI, housing starts, jobless claims, Philadelphia Fed survey, natural gas inventories, Fed balance sheet/money supply, Comcast shareholder mtg, Hess annual mtg, Intel shareholder mtg, Tiffany shareholder mtg; Earnings from Wal-Mart, Kohl's, Applied Materials, Autodesk, Marvell Tech, Nordstrom, JCPenney
FRIDAY: Consumer sentiment, leading indicators, Chipotle shareholder mtg, Icahn/Transocean shareholder mtg, JCPenney annual mtg

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