Futures Steady After Dow, S&P Soar to Fresh Records

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U.S. stock-index futures pointed slightly lower on Wednesday after a broad rally in the prior session as traders mulled disappointing data from the eurozone.

Today's Markets

As of 8:20 a.m. ET, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 14 points to 15161, S&P 500 futures dipped 2 points to 1646 and Nasdaq 100 futures slumped 0.5 point to 2995.

In what is becoming a trend on Wall Street, the Dow and S&P 500 lurched to fresh highs on Tuesday. It was the nineteenth record-setting day of the year for the blue-chip average and the fourteenth for the S&P. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq is trading at levels not seen since October 2000 -- during the precipitous drop following dot-com era highs.

Tobias Levkovich, Citigroup's (NYSE:C) top equities analyst, told clients that the markets may yet have some "oomph" left even as the closely-tracked S&P breaks through key resistance points, like 1650 and potentially even 1675. However, Levkovich struck a cautious tone about the Street's trajectory in coming months.

"We would expect some pullback during the summer as fears of a paring back by the Fed, European economic disappointment and a potential debt ceiling fight in the (U.S.) come together," he wrote.

On the European front, the eurozone's economy shrunk by 0.2% in the first quarter, marking the longest recession in the currency bloc's history, and worse than the 0.1% economists forecast. The two biggest economies -- Germany and France -- continued struggling. Germany's economy grew at a tepid 0.1%, while France contracted by 0.2%.

There are several reports due out on the U.S. economy. At 8:30 a.m., the Labor Department releases the latest figures on wholesale-level inflation. The Producer Price Index is forecast to have fallen 0.6% in April from March as energy prices swooned.

At the same time, the New York Federal Reserve provides its regional manufacturing snapshot. The gauge is forecast to show the pace of expansion to have picked up slightly in May from the month before. A report due out later from the Federal Reserve is expected to show the U.S. factory sector cooling by 0.2% in April on a month-to-month basis.

In corporate news, analysts at Citigroup (NYSE:C) raised Gap (NYSE:GPS) to "buy" from "neutral" and upped their price target by $8 to $48. Macy's (NYSE:M) upped its dividend by 25% as the retailer reported profits and sales that climbed from the year prior.

Oil futures were in the red. The benchmark U.S. contract dipped 87 cents, or 0.92%, to $93.30 a barrel. Wholesale New York Harbor gasoline was flat at $2.838 a gallon. In metals, gold sold off $18.60, or 1.3%, to $1,406 a troy ounce.