****dow to soar tonight!!******, page-5

re: ****u.s. stock-index futures decline!!****** Goblin you are once again full of crap.

U.S. Stock-Index Futures Decline; Intel Shares Fall in Europe
April 18 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stock-index futures fell amid concern growth in the world's largest economy is waning faster than expected. Shares of Intel Corp. and General Motors Corp. slid in Europe.

``There's a strong argument that things are slowing down,'' said Rudi Van Den Eynde at Dexia Asset Management in Brussels, which oversees about $12.2 billion in assets, including U.S. stocks. ``This shakeout of stocks will continue until people get a sense of where the U.S. economy is going.'' Van Den Eynde said he isn't selling or buying U.S. stocks today.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures lost 50 to 10,033 at 9:27 a.m. in London, with 22 stocks in the index falling in Europe and five gaining. Futures for the Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 5.7 to 1137.90. Nasdaq-100 Index futures slid 9 to 1405.5.

Adobe Systems Inc. fell in Germany after agreeing to buy Macromedia Inc. for about $3.4 billion in stock. Bank of America Corp. and Texas Instruments Inc. also declined. The two are among S&P 500 companies due to report earnings today.

Benchmark indexes closed last week at 2005 lows after their steepest five-day declines since at least August. Companies such as General Motors, Alcoa Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. led the slide.

Reports on manufacturing and consumer confidence on April 15 reinforced speculation that the economy is slowing amid higher commodity prices. Production at U.S. factories dropped for the first time in six months and consumer sentiment fell to the lowest since September 2003. The reports came after IBM, the world's largest computer-services company, posted disappointing earnings.

Intel, GM

Intel, the biggest maker of semiconductors, lost 10 cents to $22.02 in Germany today. General Motors, the largest automaker, slid 17 cents to $25.43.

Adobe Systems, the largest maker of graphic-design software, fell $1.37 to $59.29 in Germany. Macromedia, the maker of Dreamweaver and Flash Web-design, increased $7.38 to $40.83.

Bank of America, the third-largest U.S. bank, fell 39 cents to $43.88. The company's earnings report is due before U.S. markets open.

Texas Instruments, the world's biggest maker of mobile-phone semiconductors, dropped 30 cents to $22.46. It will probably say first-quarter profit per share before some gains and losses rose to 23 cents from 22 cents a year earlier, based on Thomson Financial estimates. The report is due after U.S. markets close.