Wall Street is expecting a slightly higher open today amid bargain-hunting after the market's recent battering, but advances are seen as cautious as corporate profit warnings continue to hit the market.
Stocks suffered a brutal session yesterday as investors buckled under another heap of corporate profit warnings and steep job cuts. Mounting US-China tensions over the fate of a Navy spy plane and its crew forced down on Hainan island gave investors more reasons to bail out of the battered market.
The market awaits the release of the National Association of Purchasing Management's non-manufacturing index for March, which is expected to register a reading of 51.5 or nearly flat with the previous month's reading at 51.7.
The market also awaits Federal Reserve chairman Mr Alan Greenspan's testimony on trade policy before the US Senate Finance Committee.
Yesterday, the tech-laden Nasdaq Composite index tumbled 109.97 points, or 6.17 per cent, to 1,673.00, its worst close since late October 1998.
The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average fell 292.22 points, or 2.99 per cent, to 9,485.71, or 107 points from bear market territory under Wall Street's definition of a 20 per cent drop or more from index peaks.
In the news, AIG, the world's largest insurer, said it offered to buy life insurer American General for about $23 billion, topping the deal agreed to last month with British life insurer Prudential.