Stocks to slip at open as commodities retreat
Stocks headed for a lower open on Friday as a pullback in commodity prices weighed on natural resource shares after the U.S. dollar rebounded.
The dollar rose broadly after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that monetary policy might have to be tightened as a recovery takes hold.
The dollar's decline, which culminated in a 14-month trough against a basket of currencies on Thursday, has been one the major underpinnings of the stock market's run-up as the appetite for riskier assets grew.
Mining shares fell before the bell, with Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc
In the energy sector, shares of ConocoPhillips
There's focus on the dollar following Bernanke comments overnight, said Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak & Co. The weaker dollar has been good for asset classes, and at some point that will break.
S&P 500 futures dipped 2 points and were below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures shed 13 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 8.50 points.
U.S. stocks rose for a fourth straight session Thursday as a surprising quarterly profit from aluminum company Alcoa Inc
(Reporting by Ellis Mnyandu; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
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