Stock futures point to lower Wall Street open

(AP:NEW YORK) Stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street Tuesday as the dollar, which powered Monday's huge rally, eased its slide.

Investors paused after sending the Dow Jones industrials up 200 points for the second time in three days on the back of a weaker dollar. Low interest rates and the greenback's subsequent decline are two major drivers of the surge in stocks over the past several months. A weaker dollar gives investors access to cheap debt and enables them to buy more assets with the potential to yield better returns, like stocks, commodities and bonds.

The falling dollar has enabled many investors to look past some of the economy's trouble spots, including rising unemployment. The unemployment rate now sits at 10.2 percent.

Some analysts, though, are warning that this rally, which has taken stocks to new highs for 2009, is unwarranted given the still-uncertain economy.

The ICE Futures US dollar index, which measures the dollar against other currencies, crept up 0.2 percent in morning trading. Gold prices were slightly higher, while oil prices also rose.

Commodities prices have benefited from the weak dollar as well, helping to send the stocks of energy and materials producing companies higher.

In early corporate news Tuesday, Beazer Homes USA posted a fourth-quarter profit despite a plunge in revenue. The Atlanta-based homebuilder said high unemployment and rising foreclosures continue to make it difficult to predict when the housing market will recover.

Ahead of the market's open, Dow futures fell 24, or 0.2 percent, to 10,168. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 3.40, or 0.3 percent, to 1,088.30, while Nasdaq 100 index futures fell 3.00, or 0.2 percent, to 1,763.50.

Investors continue to seek guidance about the economy, hoping retailers' earnings reports later in the week will give a sense of how much consumers are spending. Without the help of the consumer, which accounts for around for 70 percent of the U.S. economy, any economic recovery will be modest.

After its earnings report, Beazer shares jumped 8.5 percent, adding 40 cents to $5.09.

Light, sweet crude added 28 cents to $79.71 a barrel in electronic premarket trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold rose a dollar to $1,102 an ounce.

Markets overseas were higher, catching up to the advance in the U.S. on Monday.

Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 0.6 percent. In afternoon trading, Britain's FTSE 100 was up 0.2 percent, Germany's DAX index was up 0.1 percent, and France's CAC-40 dipped 0.02 percent.

Bond prices rose. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 3.46 percent from 3.49 percent late Monday.



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