Stock futures weighed down by Greece loan delay
Stock index futures fell on Monday as a delay in emergency loans to Greece and a possible downgrade of Italy's credit rating rekindled fears about the euro zone debt crisis, pushing investors out of riskier assets.
The euro zone finance ministers delayed their decision on extending 12 billion euros ($17 billion) in emergency loans to Greece, saying Athens would first have to introduce austerity measures.
The ministers said they expected the money, the next tranche in a 110 billion euro bailout by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, to be paid by mid-July. Greece needs the loans by then to avoid a debt default.
Moody's threatened Friday to cut Italy's credit ratings in the next 90 days on worries that Greece's crisis may drive euro-zone interest rates higher and derail Italy's fragile economic recovery.
The 'To Do' list for Greece, the EU and the IMF is still left unchecked after the weekend meetings, said Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak + Co in New York.
Making matters worse, the underlying weakness of the global equity markets over the past month has been due to economic moderation and those fears continue in the two fastest avenues of growth, China and India.
S&P 500 futures fell 7 points and were below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration of the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures tumbled 64 points and Nasdaq 100 futures lost 10.75 points.
The Dow ended the week higher, managing to close just above 12,000 on Friday. The S&P 500 barely squeaked out a gain after six straight weeks of losses. The Nasdaq lost 1 percent last week and is down 1.5 percent for the year.
The uncertainty surrounding a resolution of the Greece crisis has made investors wary of committing more cash to equities.
Ford Motor Co
General Electric Co
U.S. oil futures fell 1.4 percent to $91.75 a barrel, extending the previous week's losses.
(Reporting by Angela Moon; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
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