Wall Street set to open lower on profit taking
Wall Street was poised for a lower open on Tuesday the day after markets surged, as investors assessed a raft of recent moves to shore up the struggling economy and soft oil prices weighed on energy shares.
On Monday, U.S. stocks surged around 7 percent after the Obama administration unveiled details of a plan to clean toxic assets off bank balance sheets, lifting a major weight off the market and giving bank shares their best day in at least 16 years.
We probably went a little bit too far too fast yesterday in all that euphoria that was created, said Paul Mendelsohn, chief investment strategist at Windham Financial Services, in Charlotte, Vermont.
You've got a lot of people out there who don't trust this rally and are going to jump in here and take profits fairly quickly ... I think we've got more room to run but we're not going to do it in one straight shot.
Investors will also be watching testimony from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's testimonies before the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee later in the day.
The hearing is about American International Group's
Lower oil prices pressured energy shares as U.S. crude futures retreated after a 3 percent rise on Monday, slipping down toward $53 a barrel. Shares of Exxon Mobil
S&P 500 futures fell 7.80 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 were down 69 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures lost 7.50 points.
The S&P 500 and the Dow industrials posted their biggest one-day percentage gains since late October on Monday after the long awaited details of the bank plan were released, as well as more data suggesting the housing market could be on the mend.
The benchmark S&P 500 index is up more than 20 percent from the bear market closing low set on March 9 and on Monday closed above 800 for the first time since February 13.
Financial shares were lower before the bell as investors took profits following Monday's strength. Bank of America
Longtime Bank of America shareholder Jerry Finger launched on Monday a formal campaign to oust Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis of his job as chairman, saying the bank took too much risk when it bought Merrill Lynch & Co.
In the latest in the bonus controversy, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said on Monday 15 of 20 AIG leading bonus recipients have agreed to give them back in full. The spending of $165 million in executive pay has drawn anger from those opposed to the payment of bonuses in light of the government bailout.
(Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
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