Stocks and Markets in the News | U.S. futures Indications

By Shawn Langlois, MarketWatch 

LONDON (MarketWatch) — All eyes will be on the technology sector when trading gets underway in the U.S. on Friday, after Microsoft Corp. posted a first-ever quarterly loss just as rival Google Inc. drew buyers with an upbeat report. 

“Both companies posted better-than-expected earnings, but were light on revenues. This is turning out to be a feature of this second quarter, as cost-cutting helps corporations beat earnings expectations (which have already been revised down sharply) while revenues get hit by the weaker economic environment. However, traders have brushed aside any concerns so far,” said David Morrison, senior market analyst at GFT Markets, in emailed comments. 

Google's ad business improves Google's second-quarter profits are up thanks to improvements in its core advertising business. MarketWatch's Dan Gallagher has details from the earnings report, including a look at the Motorola Mobility acquisition. Photo: Getty Images. 

Also on tap, conglomerate General Electric Co. GE -0.20%  will open its books on the second quarter, with analysts polled by Factset looking for a profit of 37 cents a share on revenue of $36.77 billion. 

Elsewhere on the earnings front, Schlumberger SLB -0.17%  and Xerox Corp. XRX 0.00%  will post their quarterly results. Shares of both companies barely budged ahead of the reports. Stocks to watch Friday 

 

Overall, the U.S. markets didn’t get much of a tailwind from trading action in Europe, where stocks generally dipped amid lingering worries over Spain’s rising borrowing costs. Europe Markets 

 

Reuters

Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer.

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJU2 -0.31% moved fractionally lower to 12,870. S&P 500 index futures SPU2 -0.41% shed less than 1% to 1,368, and Nasdaq-100 futures NDU2 -0.16% managed to peek into positive territory but just barely, up 2 points at 2,654. 

Google GOOG +2.12%  shares were on the move early, tacking on nearly 3% in off-hours trading after the Internet search giant toppled Wall Street expectations with its second-quarter results. Read full story . 

Microsoft MSFT +0.71%  grabbed a similar advance in the premarket after the software maker a day earlier said a $6.2 billion writedown pushed results into the red. Read full story 

 

Shawn Langlois is an editor and columnist for MarketWatch in London.