Stocks May Regain Some Ground After Friday's Sell-Off - U.S. Commentary

(RTTNews) - After seeing substantial weakness in the previous session, stocks may regain some ground in early trading on Monday. The major index futures are currently indicating a modestly higher open for the markets, with the Dow futures up by 19 points.

Traders may look to pick up stocks at reduced levels after the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates said on Sunday that it would extend additional funds for local and foreign banks to cope with the financial crisis resulting from the failure of Dubai World.

Following the comments, the markets across Asia reversed trend and surged up on optimism that the crisis will not jeopardize recovery prospects for the world economy.

Meanwhile, initial reports from the National Retail Federation revealed that the average consumer spent less on Black Friday this year than last year, although the number of shoppers increased compared to last year.

Traders will also focus on the results of the Institute for Supply Management-Chicago's business survey for November, scheduled for release at 9:45 a.m. ET. Economists expect the business barometer index based on the survey to come in at 53.3, down from the 54.2 reported last month.

In other corporate news, the second largest maker of mobile phones in the world, Samsung Electronics revealed that it would surpass expectations for 2009, helped by better than expected performance in the touch screen model phones.

Friday, stocks moved sharply lower as traders expressed concerns about an emerging financial crisis in Dubai. The Dow closed down 154 points at 10,310, the Nasdaq fell 38 points to 2,138 and the S&P 500 closed down 19 points at 1,091.

For the holiday-shortened week, the Dow and the Nasdaq posted modest losses, while the S&P 500 was nearly unchanged. The Dow fell 0.1 percent for the week, while the Nasdaq lost 0.4 percent.

Crude oil futures are moving modestly higher, trading up $0.15 at $76.20 a barrel after falling $1.91 to $76.05 a barrel on Friday. Gold futures, which ended the previous session down $12.80 at $1,174.20, are currently moving down $1.60 to $1,173.90.

On the currency front, the U.S. dollar is mixed against the major European currencies, falling to $1.5028 against the euro and drifting up to $1.6486 against the pound. Meanwhile, the buck has turned higher against the yen and is now at 86.615 yen.

In overseas trading, stocks markets across the Asia-Pacific region ended sharply higher on Monday, regaining some ground after Friday's pullback. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 Index advancing 2.9 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose by 3.3 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets are mixed. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index is currently up 0.5 percent, while the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index are both down by 0.6 percent.

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