WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After ending yesterday's choppy trading session
mostly higher, stocks may move back to the downside in early trading on Friday.
The major index futures are currently pointing to a lower open for the markets,
with the S&P 500 futures down by 0.4 percent.

Profit taking may contribute to initial weakness on Wall Street after the Nasdaq
and the S&P 500 ended the previous session at new record closing highs.

Encouraging inflation data has contributed to recent strength, although traders
remain wary about the outlook for interest rates after the Federal Reserve
forecast just one rate cut this year.

Potentially helping to alleviate the concerns, the Labor Department released a
report this morning showing unexpected decrease by U.S. import and export prices
in the month of May.

The Labor Department said import prices fell by 0.4 percent in May following a
0.9 percent advance in April. Economists had expected import prices to inch up
by 0.1 percent.

Prices for fuel imports led the way lower, tumbling by 2.0 percent, although
prices for non-fuel imports also dipped by 0.3 percent.

Meanwhile, the report said export prices slid by 0.6 percent in May after
climbing by an upwardly revised 0.6 percent in April.

Economists had expected export prices to come in unchanged compared to the 0.5
percent increase originally reported for the previous month.

Shortly after the start of trading, the University of Michigan is scheduled to
release its preliminary report on consumer sentiment in the month of June. The
consumer sentiment index is expected to climb to 72.0 in June after plunging to
69.1 in May.

Stocks turned in a relatively lackluster performance during trading on Thursday,
as traders took a breather following the rally seen in Wednesday's session.
Despite the choppy trading, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 once again reached new
record closing highs.

The Nasdaq climbed 59.12 points or 0.3 percent to 17,667.56 and the S&P 500 rose
12.71 points or 0.2 percent to 5,433.74. The Dow once again bucked the uptrend,
however, with the blue chip index slipping 65.11 points or 0.2 percent to
38,647.10.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region once again
turned in a mixed performance on Friday. Japan's Nikkei 225 rose by 0.2 percent
and China's Shanghai Composite Index inched up by 0.1 percent, while Hong Kong's
Hang Seng Index slumped by 0.9 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets have all moved to the downside on the day.
While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index is marginally lower, the German DAX Index is
down by 1.1 percent and the French CAC 40 Index is down by 2.1 percent.

In commodities trading, crude oil futures are rising $0.32 to $78.94 a barrel
after inching up $0.12 to $78.62 a barrel on Thursday. Meanwhile, after plunging
$36.80 to $2,318 an ounce in the previous session, gold futures are jumping
$25.10 to $2,343.10 an ounce.

On the currency front, the U.S. dollar is trading at 157.25 yen versus the
157.03 yen it fetched at the close of New York trading on Thursday. Against the
euro, the dollar is valued at $1.0687 compared to yesterday's $1.0737.



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