NEW YORK (AP) — Stock futures are mixed and nearly flat after four straight sessions of gains.
In the first day of trading following the holiday weekend, futures for the Dow Jones industrial average were down 16 points at 12,201. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 was down 2.6 points at 1,257.70. And the Nasdaq composite was down 1.25 at 2,277.25.
A run of strong data from the U.S. ahead of the long holiday weekend had buoyed investors around the world and particularly on Wall Street. The Dow Jones index closed Friday at a five-month high.
European shares eked out modest gains Tuesday despite an earlier retreat in Asia.
Due later Tuesday are reports on October home prices at 9 a.m. ET and consumer sentiment at 10 a.m. ET.
In Europe stock markets have recovered some ground recently, but most are still down on the year.
On Tuesday, France's CAC-40 rose 0.2 percent to 3,108 while Germany's DAX was up 0.2 percent at 5,888. The FTSE index of Britain's leading shares remained closed.
One market bucking the trend was Italy's FTSE MIB, trading 0.5 percent lower as the yield on the country's ten-year bonds struck 7 percent once again — a level that is considered unsustainable in the long-run and eventually forced Greece, Ireland and Portugal to seek outside financial help.
Italy is the eurozone's third-largest economy and is considered to be too big to save under current bailout facilities. Mario Monti, the country's new premier, got parliamentary approval last week for a big austerity package that is intended to save the country from financial disaster.
Markets have grown increasingly fearful over the past few months that Italy will find it difficult to pay off its massive debts, which stand at around €1.9 trillion ($2.5 trillion).
Despite ongoing worries over the spread of Europe's debt crisis to Italy, the euro remained relatively well-supported, trading 0.1 percent higher too at $1.3070.
The narrow ranges across stock markets reflect light holiday trading. Markets in Europe and the U.S. were closed Monday and trading is expected to be light most of this week, though there could be some year-end movement on Friday as investors look to lock in any gains they may have made.
Earlier, Asian shares fell after disappointing profits from Chinese companies and a warning that Japan faces "significant downside risks" due to Europe's debt problems. That warning came from a Finance Ministry representative at a November Bank of Japan meeting, the bank said Tuesday.
Japan's Nikkei index lost 0.5 percent to 8,440.56, while Seoul's Kospi shed 0.8 percent at 1,842.02. Taipei, Singapore and Jakarta also declined. Hong Kong and Sydney were closed.
China's benchmark Shanghai index dropped nearly 1.1 percent to 2,166.21 after the country's government reported that profit growth slowed at its major industrial companies. Total profit in the January-November period rose 24.4 percent over a year earlier, down 0.9 percent from the growth rate for the first 10 months of the year.
Oil markets were fairly subdued — benchmark crude for February delivery rose 29 cents to $99.97 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
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AP Business Writer Joe McDonald contributed to this report from Beijing.
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