U.S. Stock Futures Point To Opening Losses Monday

U.S. stock-index futures late Sunday suggested opening losses for Wall Street on Monday, as Asian equities traded broadly lower and Japanese data showed a surprise economic contraction. About 12 hours ahead of the U.S. stock open, futures for the S&P 500 implied a 0.5% drop, while those for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq 100 were each quoted 0.4% lower. The weakness came as major East Asian markets were all lower, with Japan's Nikkei Average down 2.6% at the midday break after third-quarter GDP showed a 1.6% annualized contraction, despite expectations for growth. Likewise, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index and the Shanghai Composite Index both moved off solid gains at the open to trade down 0.8% and 0.3% lower, respectively. On Friday, the S&P 500 had ended almost flat, while the Dow industrials had edged 0.1% lower, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.2%.