Wall Street set to fall on corporate, economic anxiety

NEW YORK (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 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.

"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 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 were down 202 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures lost 25.25 points.

Stocks fell on Thursday on more earnings gloom after Microsoft 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 , 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 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 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 is in talks to buy rival Wyeth 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)