Market Minute: Boeing in Focus, Bristol-Myers Looks to Settle; JPMorgan, Goldman Report

Updated



NEW YORK, Jan 16 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures slipped on Wednesday with shares of Boeing (BA) set to weigh on the market after two Japanese airlines grounded their Dreamliner fleets.

JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM) said fourth-quarter net income jumped 53 percent and earnings for 2012 set a record, while earnings at Goldman Sachs (GS) nearly tripled. Goldman shares rose 2.2 percent in premarket trading; JPMorgan slipped 0.9 percent in choppy trading.

"Clearly, the near-term focus is on earnings more than anything else, specifically on financials," said Art Hogan, managing director of Lazard Capital Markets in New York.

Meanwhile, Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) is set to begin talks intended to settle more than $500 million worth of claims relating to a hepatitis drug trial that killed one patient and injured several others. The company bought the treatment from Inhibitex for $2.5 billion and, it is alleged, rushed into testing, which revealed heart and kidney toxicity.

Shares of Dow component Boeing slumped 4.7 percent in premarket trading on concerns about the safety of its new Dreamliner passenger jets. Japan's two leading airlines grounded their fleets of 787s on Wednesday after one of the aircraft made an emergency landing, adding to safety concerns triggered by a ream of recent incidents.

"It's hard to know if it is a series of coincidences, but it is certainly putting pressure on Boeing this morning," Hogan said.

S&P 500 futures fell 4.6 points and were below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 45 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures lost 1 point.

The Dow and S&P 500 rose Tuesday after stronger-than-expected retail data, with the S&P closing at a fresh five-year high of 1,472.34.

Talks to take Dell Inc (DELL) private were at an advanced stage, with at least four major banks lined up to provide financing, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Shares fell 3.2 percent in premarket trading, after jumping more than 21 percent over the past two sessions.

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On the data front, the Labor Department releases December Real Earnings and Consumer Price Index at 8:30 a.m. ET(1330 GMT). Economists in a Reuters survey expect an unchanged CPI reading, while excluding food and energy items CPI is seen up 0.2 percent.

Real Earnings are seen a 0.3 percent higher, compared with a 0.5 percent rise in November.

A slow economic recovery in developed nations is holding back the global economy, the World Bank said, as it sharply cut its outlook for world growth in 2013. Global gross domestic product will rise 2.4 percent this year, the bank said, down from its June forecast of 3.0 percent growth in 2013.

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The new Boeing Dreamliner 787
The new Boeing Dreamliner 787

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