By Anora Mahmudova and Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower
market open Thursday, as a mixed bag of earnings and economic data
as well as renewed tensions between Russia and Ukraine weighed on
sentiment.
Morgan Stanley's quarterly results topped expectations, but both
Mattel and AutoNation were suffering following disappointing
earnings.
In economic news, jobless claims were better than expected, but
housing starts report fell short of expectations.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJU4) fell 35
points, or 0.2%, to 17,022, while those for the S&P 500 index
(SPU4) dropped 8 points, or 0.4%, to 1,967. Futures for the Nasdaq
100 index (NDU4) gave up 16 points, or 0.4%, to 3,907.
Earlier, a drop in futures accelerated following reports a
Ukrainian fighter jet was shot down by missiles from a Russian
plane. The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine said
the incident took place late Wednesday.
On Wednesday, the U.S. unveiled a new round of sanctions against
Russia, targeting companies such as oil giant Rosneft and
Gazprombank ONO. The European Union said it will detail new
sanctions against Russia by the end of this month. European stocks
fell sharply on Thursday. Read: Russian stocks pounded after U.S.
imposes new sanctions.
Ahead of the bell, shares of Morgan Stanley (MS) gained 1.3%
after the company's profit and revenue for the second quarter beat
Wall Street's projections.
Blackstone Group L.P. (BX) reported second quarter earnings that
also topped profit estimates on the back of gains from selling
assets in its private-equity business. The shares rose 2.7%.
Mattel (MAT) shares sank 7.8% as quarterly earnings were dragged
lower by muted sales of Barbie dolls.
SanDisk (SNDK) shares fell 7.8% after the flash-memory maker's
third-quarter revenue forecast was lighter than anticipated. Read
more about the day's notable movers here.
Investors will monitor comments from St. Louis Fed President
James Bullard, who is slated to speak in Kentucky about monetary
policy at 1:35 p.m. Eastern Time. Bullard said in a Bloomberg
interview last week that a continued decline in U.S. unemployment
could push inflation above the Fed's 2% target by the end of 2015.
Bullard isn't a voting member of the Fed's policy-making
committee.
In economic news, the number of people who applied for regular
state unemployment-insurance benefits in the week that ended July
12 fell to the lowest level in nine weeks.
But construction on new U.S. homes tumbled in June to the
slowest pace in nine months, led by drops for single-family homes
and apartment.
A July reading on activity among regional manufacturers is
slated for release at 10 a.m. Eastern by the Federal Reserve Bank
of Philadelphia. Economists expect to see the result weaken to 16.5
from 17.8 in June, which was the highest level since September.
After trading closes Thursday, Google (GOOG) is expected to post
earnings of $6.25 a share on revenue of $12.3 billion. Read NEED TO
KNOW: Janet Yellen might disagree, but Amazon tapped as screaming
buy.
In the commodities market, August crude-oil futures (CLQ4) rose
$1.32 to $102.52 a barrel, and gold futures (GCQ4) picked up $1.40
to $1,301 an ounce.
Asian stocks overnight closed mixed, with Japan's Nikkei Average
down 0.1%.
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