Morning Market Update: March 24, 2010

U.S. stock futures are trading lower Wednesday on renewed concerns over European debt problems following Fitch's downgrade of Portugal. Fitch Ratings downgraded Portugal's long-term foreign and local currency issuer default ratings to AA- from AA. Economic reports due out include the Commerce Department's report on orders to factories for big-ticket manufactured goods. Economists expect durable goods orders rose 0.7% in February. Excluding the volatile transportation category, orders likely rose 0.6%. The report is due out at 8:30 AM ET. In corporate news, Lennar (NYSE:LEN) reported a fiscal Q1 loss of $0.04 per share, ahead of consensus estimates for a loss of $0.30 per share. Revenues fell 3% year-over-year to $574.4 million, topping consensus estimates of $568.2 million. General Mills (NYSE:GIS) reported fiscal Q3 EPS of $0.97, ahead of consensus estimates of $0.93 per share. Revenues fell 3% year-over-year to $3.63 billion, topping consensus estimates of $3.62 billion. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) futures are trading 23.00 points below fair value, the S&P500 (INX) futures are trading 3.30 points below fair value, and the Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) futures are trading 6.75 points below fair value.

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