Paint the Table

[Foxlette]

NEW YORK (CBS.MW) - The stock averages are looking to turn some of the vicious losses incurred in the previous trading day into gains on Tuesday, though the upside shaping up so far is modest.

March S&P 500 futures rose 0.50 point, or 0.1 percent, and were trading 1.00 point above fair value, according to HL Camp & Co. And Nasdaq futures erased 3.50 points, or 0.1 percent, but were trading 0.40 points above fair value.

Some of Monday's big losers continued to bleed: Irish specialty pharmaceutical company Elan Corp. (NYSE: ELN - news) slid 14 percent in the pre-open after taking a 50.1-percent drubbing on Monday while Tyco International (NYSE: TYC - news) traded around $29.30 in Europe, off 60 cents, following a 16.1-percent beating Monday.

Qwest Communications (NYSE: Q - news) announced on Tuesday its intention to sell up to $2.5 billion in debt and equity in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The long-distance company said the filing was a first step to reduce debt by $1.5 billion to $2 billion.

Meanwhile, Sprint (NYSE: FON - news) posted late Monday a fourth-quarter profit from operations that modestly surpassed Wall Street's expectations. Looking ahead, however, the No. 3 long-distance carrier said 2002 earnings are likely to come in at the low end of previous forecasts and that growth in its wireless business would also be slower. And Sprint PCS (NYSE: PCS - news) posted a fourth-quarter loss from operations that was a touch wider vs. expectations. The wireless company also said recent evidence points to slower growth in the industry over the next year.

Treasury focus
In the government bond arena, prices traded mixed in early action but failed to stray far from the unchanged mark. The fixed-income market is also awaiting the refunding auctions, with $16 billion in 2-year notes set for sale on Tuesday and $13 billion in 10-year notes on tap Wednesday.

The 10-year Treasury note was up 2/32 to yield 4.895 percent while the 30-year government bond edged up 1/32 to yield 5.345 percent.

On the economic front, Tuesday will see the second-tier releases of December factory orders -- expected to climb 1.2 percent -- and the January non-manufacturing index from the Institute to Supply Management.

In the currency sector, the dollar gained 0.7 percent to 133.21 yen while the euro shed 0.1 percent to 86.84 cents.

Rating agency Standard & Poor's downgraded seven major Japanese banks by various degrees, including Dai-Ichi Kangyo, Fuji and Industrial Bank of Japan, Yasuda Trust & Banking and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi. S&P said the downgrades reflected a deterioration in financial conditions due to high and growing level of impaired assets, insufficient core earnings to meet credit costs, and widening shortfalls in capital to offset losses.