U.S. stock futures fell in early trading on Thursday, as deep
losses pummeled Asia markets and Europe also fell sharply on unease
over the prospect of a pullback in central bank easy money
policies. Adding downside weight, the World Bank cut its global
growth forecast.
A busy data day includes weekly jobless claims and a key retail
sales report that's expected to show a rebound in spending.
In choppy action, futures for the Dow industrials fell 70
points, or 0.5%, to 14908, while those for the Standard &
Poor's 500 index fell 8.2 points, or 0.5%, to 1601.70. Futures for
the Nasdaq 100 index fell 12.75 points, or 0.4%, to 2907.50.
"The long-awaited selloff in global markets is finally here
after the stellar performances of equities in the first quarter of
the year," said Ishaq Siddiqi, market strategist with ETX Capital,
in a note.
"This selloff most certainly has momentum as there seems little
to suggest that the Fed will not taper stimulus and the ECB has
demonstrated greater unwillingness to respond with measures to
stimulate the euro zone and the BOJ stood firm on not adding more
QE on Tuesday," he said.
The Nikkei Stock Average plunged 6.4%, its sixth loss in seven
days with exporters pounded as the dollar fell as low as 93.76 yen
in the Asia session. China stocks also returned from a string of
holidays to lose more than 2%.
Global sentiment was dented after the World Bank cut its global
economic-growth forecast to 2.2% for 2013 growth, down from a 2.4%
projection issued in January.
More direction for the Fed may come from the data calendar for
Thursday. The most-watched indicator will be retail sales due at
8:30 a.m. EDT, which is forecast to rise 0.5% in May after a 0.1%
uptick in April.
At the same time, weekly jobless claims are due for release,
along with import prices for May, which are forecast to fall 0.2%.
At 10 a.m. EDT, the Commerce Department will issue inventories
data.
Wall Street stocks tumbled on Wednesday, with the Dow
industrials marking their third-straight loss, the first time that
has happened this year. After rising 119 points, the Dow Jones
Industrial Average ended 126.79 points, or 0.8%, lower to
14995.23.
The S&P 500 index lost 13.61 points, or 0.8%, to
1612.52.
Some analysts remain upbeat on stocks, despite the recent
setback.
"We remain bullish on global equities and see this current
pullback as part of the choppy transition from extreme,
reflationary monetary policy and crisis management, to a more
"normal" world of self-sustaining growth and higher rates," said
analysts at UBS in a note. They added that they'd look to
financials and tech stocks for outperformance, and downgraded
telecoms and energy.
Outside of Asia, Europe stocks were also seeing heavy losses,
with the Stoxx Europe 600 index down 1.4%, and the German DAX 30
index dropping 2% to fall below 8,000 for the first time since
early May.
Gold and oil prices also declined.
Write to Barbara Kollmeyer at BKollmeyer@marketwatch.com
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