Futures signal fall on Wall St; AMD, Fed in focus : US Business

By Amanda Cooper

LONDON (Reuters) - Stock futures fell on Tuesday, indicating a lower opening on Wall Street, after a downbeat start to the first-quarter reporting season.

No major companies are scheduled to report on Tuesday but investors will be keen to see the minutes of the Federal Reserve's March policy meeting later in the day.

Technology stocks will likely be in focus after Advanced Micro Devices Inc , the second-largest maker of computer processors, said after Monday's closing bell it would cut 10 percent of its work force and missed expectations with its first quarter.

Citing lower-than-expected sales across its business, AMD estimated revenue for the quarter ended March 29 at about $1.5 billion, well below the average analyst forecast of $1.62 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.

Aluminum producer Alcoa also reported results after Monday's close. The company said first-quarter profits were halved from a year ago because of energy costs and a weak dollar.

Alcoa shares were among the most actively traded U.S. blue chips in Europe, falling 4.7 percent from their last close in Frankfurt to 23.55 euros .

By 5:12 a.m. EDT, June Dow Jones and Standard & Poor's 500 futures were both down 0.5 percent, while Nasdaq 100 futures were down 0.4 percent.

The indicative Dow Jones index was down 0.2 percent.

U.S. benchmark indexes closed little changed on Monday, but analysts said the failure of the Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> to breach the 12,700 level for the third time in two months did not bode well for further rises in the index.

"What really means something is AMD coming out and cutting yesterday and what is significant is we came off yesterday after zooming higher on all stocks and closing at the lows of the day," said City Index analyst Tom Hougaard.

"At this point, the news out there is pretty bearish across the board and (any rises) are just a question of a correction in a market that is deeply, deeply oversold," he said.

On Monday, the Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was up 3.01 points, or 0.02 percent, ending at 12,612.43. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> was up 2.14 points, or 0.16 percent, finishing at 1,372.54. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> was down 6.15 points, or 0.26 percent, at 2,364.83.

Most major U.S. companies trading in Frankfurt were in the red on Tuesday morning. Among gainers were Qwest Communications , United Airlines , Bank of New York Mellon and Sprint Nextel , which all rose between 3.1 and 4.6 percent from their last closes in Europe, although in thin trade.

Major decliners included Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae , which fell between 5 and 5.7 percent from their last closes in Frankfurt .

The Dow rallied by more than 3 percent last week as investors grew increasingly optimistic that the worst of the fallout from the credit crunch would soon be over.

Investors will take a look at the Fed's Open Market Committee meeting minutes for further evidence of policymakers' thinking on the likely course of U.S. interest rates, which in March fell to 2.25 percent from 3.0 percent.

(Editing by Paul Bolding)

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