* General Electric earnings as forecast, warning on year
* Data confirms Britain has gone into recession
* Harley-Davidson stock down after profits fall
* S&P futures off 2.8 pct, Dow futures off 2.5 pct, Nasdaq
futures off 2.2 pct
* For up-to-the-minute market news, click []
(Adds more corporate news, updates market moves)
By Leah Schnurr
NEW YORK, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Wall Street was poised for a
lower open on Friday, pulled down by worries over corporates'
profits and their outlook for the year as the global economic
slowdown showed no signs of letting up.
Bellwether General Electric <GE.N> posted a quarterly
profit that met expectations but warned of an "extremely
difficult" 2009, feeding investor concerns about corporate
profits given the uncertainty of the economic outlook. For
details, see [].
"GE really represents the whole market. GE is the
bellwether because they operate in almost all segments of the
market and there's no segment here that you can really look at
and say that looks good," said Paul Mendelsohn, chief
investment strategist at Windham Financial Services in
Charlotte, Vermont.
"On average companies are saying they expect a very, very
challenging year and that's part of what's causing the
problem," he said.
Shares of GE were down 4.6 percent at $12.93 in premarket
trading.
On the broader economic front, European business surveys
showed companies there were bogged down in recessionary
territory, while British data confirmed the economy had gone
into recession for the first time since 1991. [].
S&P 500 futures <SPc1> fell 22.30 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 <DJc1> were down
202 points, and Nasdaq 100 <NDc1> futures lost 25.25 points.
Stocks fell on Thursday on more earnings gloom after
Microsoft <MSFT.O> surprised the market with proposed job cuts
and disappointing earnings. The broad S&P 500 closed at 827.50
and Mendelsohn said investors will be watching to see if it
holds above 800, a key resistance level.
With earnings season in full swing, among Friday morning's
results was a report from Harley-Davidson <HOG.N>, who said it
would close plants and cut 1,100 jobs, while its earnings
missed expectations. []. Shares of the motorcycle
maker were down 13.3 percent at $10.75.
Schlumberger Ltd <SLB.N> shares fell to their lowest level
since June 2005, and were down 2.7 percent to $36.25 after the
company cautioned it faced reduced spending by its oil and gas
producing customers in 2009. The world's largest oilfield
services company also reported a drop in quarterly profit.
[].
The earnings season so far has been a weak one, as
expected, with companies announcing a slew of job cuts and
giving a grim outlook for the year ahead as they grapple with
the fallout from the credit crunch and ensuing year-long U.S.
recession.
But there have been some bright spots, particularly in the
tech sector. Among them, Internet leader Google Inc <GOOG.O>
reported earnings that beat Wall Street's estimates, sending
its shares up 1.4 percent to $310.69 in premarket action.
In the health sector, Pfizer Inc <PFE.N> is in talks to buy
rival Wyeth <WYE.N> in a deal that could be valued at more than
$60 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.
[].
Shares of Pfizer, the world's largest drugmaker, were down
3 percent at $16.70 following the report, while Wyeth jumped
13.2 percent to $43.95.
(Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
