Stocks set for lower open, banks slump

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — U.S. stocks are preparing to take a hit early Thursday, as the world’s largest banks fall under more government scrutiny and drag on equity markets.

Dow Jones industrial average (INDU), S&P 500 (SPX) and Nasdaq (COMP) futures were lower ahead of the opening bell. Futures measure current index values against perceived future performance.

Late Wednesday, the Senate issued a 600-page report slamming Goldman Sachs, as a “case study” of the recklessness and greed that set off the 2008 financial crisis.

“Our investigation found a financial snake pit rife with greed, conflicts of interest, and wrongdoing,” Senator Carl Levin said, following the report.

Early Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported that banks including Bank of America, Citigroup and UBS, are being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission and Justice Department for understating their own borrowing costs.

In premarket trading, Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500) shares fell 1.4%, Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) fell 0.8%, Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) fell 0.6% and UBS (UBS) shares were flat.

Stocks are coming off of slight gains Wednesday, thanks to a late-afternoon turnaround following President Obama’s speech unveiling his plan to cut the U.S. budget deficit by $4 trillion over 12 years.

However, the market reversed course after Obama laid down a series of spending and deficit targets, adding that he wants $3 in spending cuts for every $1 in additional tax revenue.

Economy: The Labor Department is scheduled to release its latest report on first-time unemployment claims, and producer prices for March, at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Wall Street expects initial claims to have edged higher by 3,000 to 385,000 claims last week, while producer prices are expected to have risen 1.1% in March.

Companies: Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) reports its quarterly results after the bell. Analysts expect the Internet search giant’s profits will jump to $8.10 share, compared to the $6.76 a share last year.

Google’s stock near its September 2007 levels, after falling 9% since Eric Schmidt announced in January that he’d be stepping down as CEO.

BP (BP) is likely to face criticism and questions at its first major shareholder meeting, since last year’s Deepwater Horizon disaster and Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The annual shareholder meeting kicks off in London at 6:30 a.m. ET. Shares were down 0.7% ahead of New York’s opening bell.

World markets: European stocks fell in morning trading. Britain’s FTSE dropped 1%, the DAX in Germany fell 0.8% and France’s CAC lost 1.3%.

Asian markets ended the session mixed. The Shanghai Composite edged lower 0.3% and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong slipped 0.5%, while Japan’s Nikkei ticked up 0.1%.

Currencies and commodities: The dollar rose against the euro, but fell against the Japanese yen and the British pound.

Oil for May delivery slipped 33 cents to $106.78 a barrel.

Gold futures for June delivery rose $2.80 to $1,458.40 an ounce.

Bonds: The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury rose, pushing the yield down to 3.44% from 3.47% late Wednesday.  

First Published: April 14, 2011: 6:42 AM ET