9:00AM Stock futures traded flat after inflation data.
U.S. stock futures were flat Tuesday, reflecting in-line core inflation data and lackluster earnings reports from Wal-Mart Stores and Home Depot. The Labor Department said that U.S. consumer prices rose 0.4% in April, boosted by increases for energy and groceries. Excluding food and energy, the core consumer price index rose 0.2%, meeting forecasts.

Among pre-market earnings highlights, Wal-Mart (WMT: chart) declined 0.8% in pre-open trading as it met expectations with an 8% profit rise, with revenue rising 8.5% to $86.41 billion in Q1. The Home Depot (HD: chart), the world''s largest home improvement retailer, posted Q1 earnings drop of 29.5% to $1.0 billion, or 53 cents per share, compared with $1.5 billion, or 70 cents per share last year, missing analyst estimates of earnings of 59 cents. The stock dropped 2.2%. Agilent Technologies (A: chart) rose 3% in pre-open trade on better-than-expected quarterly earnings per share and revenue outlook.

On the merger-and-acquisition news front, Reuters Group (RTRSY: chart) and Thomson Corp. (TOC: chart) agreed to merge in a deal worth about $17.2 billion. Shares in Reuters Group rose 3.6% in the pre-open. In other corporate news, General motors (GM: chart) and DaimlerChrysler (DCX: chart) were upgraded after DaimlerChrysler''s move to sell 80% of Chrysler. DaimlerChrysler also said that its Q1 profit more than doubled due to the sale of its stake in Airbus owner EADS. S&P 500 futures edged up 1.6 points at 1,510.30 and Nasdaq 100 futures were flat at 1,896.25. Dow industrial futures rose 17 points.


8:45AM Asian markets finish lower across the region with China, Japan leading downfall.

Asian markets finished lower on Tuesday. Japanese Nikkei 225 settled down 0.9% to 17,512.98. Stocks fell after the Japanese government released the core machinery orders figure falling 4.5%. Fanuc, the largest industrial-robot maker in the world, declined 1%. Steelmaker JFE Holdings lost 1.5%. Mitsubishi Electric, which makes factory machinery and robots, dipped 3.8%.

Automaker bucked the trend and gained. Shares of Toyota Motor rose 0.7%, while Honda Motor was up 0.7% and Nissan Motor added 0.9%. Suzuki Motor climbed 2.8%.

Shanghai Composite index plunged 3.6% to 3,899.17. Sharp declines in large-capitalized stocks drove the benchmark share index lower. Investors took profits on several large-cap stocks. China Minsheng Banking dipped 6.3%, wiping out its gains in the past two sessions.

Elsewhere around the region, Hong Kong Hang Seng index, which gained in early trading, closed in negative territory, down 0.5% at 20,868.15. South Korean Kospi settled down 1% at 1,589.37. Australian S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.8% to finish at 6291.20. The Singapore Straits Times Index lost 0.7% to 3,475.08 and Weighted index in Taipei declined 0.7% to 7,975.03.


8:30AM Wal-Mart stores posted Q1 earnings in line with estimates.
Wal-Mart Stores (WMT: chart), the world''s largest retailer, posted 8% increase in Q1 net income, coming in line with analyst estimates and 8.5% revenue growth, slightly missing expectations. The retailer reported quarterly earnings $2.83 billion, or 68 cents a share, up from $2.62 billion, or 63 cent a year ago, with revenue rising 8.5% to $86.41 billion from $79.68 billion. Analysts had expected the company to earn 68 cents a share on revenue of $86.94 billion.

Chief Executive Lee Scott said they were not pleased with their overall performance, but international operations had a strong quarter, especially Mexico operations and Asda in the U.K. The retailer''s consolidated profit margin thinned by 0.08% in the quarter. The company projected Q2 earnings from continuing operations to be 75 cents to 79 cents a share, compared with analyst expectations of 79 cents a share. U.S. comparable-store sales are seen higher by 1% to 2%.


8:00AM NY-7:00PM Mumbai Sensex edges lower with IT and oil & gas stocks leading decliners.

The Sensex on BSE finished 36.53 points, or 0.26%, lower at 13,929.33.

The market-breadth was slightly positive as there were 1,330 stocks which advanced, 1,271 stocks, which declined, and 78 stocks which remained unchanged. Of the 30 stocks in the Sensex, 15 advanced, while the rest declined. The turnover on BSE was Rs 4,131 crore, almost unchanged from Rs 4,136.23 crore on Monday. On NSE, the turnover was Rs 9,135.04 crore, higher than Rs 8,472.51 crore on Monday.

Economic news

The rupee continued its advance and was quoted at 40.83 against the US dollar in late morning deals supported by weak dollar overseas and sustained dollar selling by exporters, despite capital outflows.

The finance ministry announced today that the government is not intending to raise rates on small savings scheme. Prevailing interest rates on small savings are within the range of 3.5% for the post office saving account and 8% under the post office monthly income account. Rates for Public Provident Fund and Senior Citizen savings scheme are 8% and 9% respectively.