[R]9:00AM Market futures declined amid weak durable goods orders.[/R]

U.S. stock futures moved to the downside Wednesday, weighed down by an unexpectedly steep decline in durable-goods orders in May. However, better-than-forecast earnings from Nike Inc. and Oracle Corp. bucked the downward trend.

Nike (NKE: chart) jumped 5% in pre-open trade after posting a 32% profit rise and the fastest growth in orders in the last four years. Oracle (ORCL: chart) gained 0.5% after reporting a 23% profit rise in Q4, helped by acquisition deals.

In other corporate news, Nuvelo (NUVO: chart) slipped 22% after the biopharmaceutical terminated its collaboration with Bayer on a blood-clot drug. Guitar Center (GTRC: chart) soared 19.9% after agreeing to be bought by Bain Capital in a deal worth $1.9 billion. S&P 500 futures dropped 4.1 points at 1,493.70 and Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 4.5 points at 1,921.00. Dow industrial futures fell 26 points.


[R]8:00AM Oracle reported better-than-forecast Q4 profit and sales.[/R]

Oracle (ORCL: chart), software giant, announced after the closing bell Thursday a better-than-expected 23% earnings increase in Q4. The company said that net earnings rose to $1.6 billion, or 31 cents per share, compared with $1.3 billion, or 24 cents per share a year earlier. Quarterly revenues jumped 20% to $5.8 billion. Excluding charges, it would have earned 37 cents a share, exceeding analyst forecast for operating earnings per share at 35 cents and revenues at $5.61 billion.

The business software maker also said that sales are expected to accelerate in the current quarter. Oracle has spent $25 billion buying other software makers. The strategy of bundling these products together and offering a comprehensive suite of software has proved successful, leading to bigger deals and a larger number of customers. Shares of Oracle Corp. added 1.3% in pre-market trading Wednesday.


[R]7:30AM NY-6:30PM Mumbai Sensex ends 70 points lower on weak auto and metal shares.[/R]

The Sensex on BSE finished 70.02 points lower, or 0.48%, at 14,431.06.

The market-breadth turned negative in the latter part of trading. As 1,245 stocks advanced, 1,388 stocks declined and 64 were unchanged. Of the 30 stocks in the Sensex, only 10 advanced, while the rest declined. The turnover on BSE was Rs 4,685 crore, compared to Rs 4,706 crore on Tuesday. On NSE, the turnover was Rs 9,375 crore, slightly lower than Rs 9,557 crore on Tuesday.

Economic news

The rupee declined for the fourth straight day on talks that financial inflows from abroad will shrink after foreign companies had completed buying new shares offers that drew money from overseas. The rupee fell 0.2% to 41.005 against the dollar in morning trading in Mumbai.

Air India Ltd., the biggest carrier overseas, opened freighter operations with two Airbus SAS planes to meet the increasing demand for transporting goods in India, the second-fastest in growth major economy.

Trading highlights

GMR Infrastructure was the most active stock with a turnover of Rs 297 crore followed by India Infoline and new issue Nelcast.

Advancers

It stocks advanced supported by a weaker rupee. Satyam Computers spurted 2.6% to Rs 468, and led the gainers while Wipro advanced 0.2% to Rs 510, TCS gained 0.9% to Rs 1,133 and Infosys Technologies added 0.7% to Rs 1,936. TCS announced on Tuesday, June 26 2007, that it had struck an agreement with Scuderia Ferrari to provide the complete software to the Formula one cars of the Italian carmaker.

Auto stocks traded mixed. Hero Honda advanced 0.9% to Rs 676 and Bajaj Auto gained nearly 0.2% to Rs 2,131. Other gainers included Grasim up 0.3% to Rs 2,503 and Gujarat Ambuja Cements, 0.3% higher to Rs 116.