Before the Bell

Wall Street can only take so much of a good thing. After eight sessions of gains for the Dow - its longest winning streak in four years - stock futures are pointing sideways. The big news of the moment is Citigroup.

We finally know how many jobs the financial services company is cutting - 17,000. Published reports had called for as many as 45,000. But we can't forget interest rates and the economy. Everyone's waiting for this afternoon's release of the minutes from the latest Fed meeting and speeches from several Fed officials, including Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Trading in U.S. Treasuries is restrained, but they are up a bit on continued bargain-hunting. The dollar is up a bit against the euro and the yen. Mortgage applications were down for the fourth straight week as a drop in refinancings outweighed increased demand for purchase loans, according to just-released data.

Oil prices are hovering around $62 a barrel as the market awaits data likely to show a fall in U.S. gasoline inventories. The Wall Street Journal says Nasdaq is in talks to buy the Philadelphia Stock Exchange. Alcoa shares are up in premarket trading after the aluminum company reported higher-than-expected results late yesterday.

And speaking of aluminum, Anglo-Swiss miner Xstrata is selling that part of its business to private equity firm Apollo for $1.15 billion.

Lisa Von Ahn Editor
www.Reuters.com