Futures signal lower open for stocks

Stock futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street Wednesday as a stronger dollar tugged on commodities prices. A stronger dollar makes commodities more expensive for foreign buyers and can hurt the profits of companies that do business overseas. Bond prices were little changed ahead of the government's final debt auction of the year. Markets overseas also fell, following a slight dip in major U.S. stock indexes the day before. The decline in U.S. markets Tuesday ended a six-day winning streak as reports on home prices and consumer confidence failed to galvanize investors. While the reports showed improvement, they painted a picture of a slowly recovering economy and were largely in line with expectations. After a 24.7 percent rise in the Standard & Poor's 500 index this year, many investors have closed their books and are making few moves ahead of the start of 2010. With fewer traders in the market, price swings can be exaggerated. Ahead of the market's open, Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 55, or 0.5 percent, to 10,432. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 6.90, or 0.6 percent, to 1,114.80, while Nasdaq 100 index futures lost 8.25, or 0.4 percent, to 1,864.25. In corporate news, GMAC Financial Services is expected to receive $3.5 billion in additional government aid, The Wall Street Journal reported. GMAC, instrumental to the operations of automakers General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC, has received $12.5 billion in taxpayer money and is 35 percent owned by the federal government. Bond prices held steady ahead of an auction of seven-year notes, the last of the government's issuances this week. In total, the Treasury is auctioning off $118 billion of new debt. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, was unchanged at 3.80 percent. The ICE Futures U.S. dollar index, which measures the dollar against other major currencies, rose 0.1 percent. Oil prices fell 11 cents to $78.76 a barrel in electronic premarket trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold prices also fell. Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 0.9 percent. In late morning trading in Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 was down 0.4 percent, Germany's DAX index was down 0.8 percent, and France's CAC-40 was down 0.7 percent.