US Stock Futures Down Ahead of Jobless claims, Private Payrolls Data

US stock futures are lower this morning, as investors are awaiting weekly jobless claims and private payrolls data. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 67 points to 12,289.00 and S&P 500 index futures fell 8.90 points to 1,264.10. Nasdaq 100 futures declined 13.75 points to 2,315.00. US stocks closed mostly higher on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining 0.17% to 12,418.42, the S&P 500 index rising 0.02% to 1,277.30 and the Nasdaq 100 index dropping 0.01% to 2,648.36. Payrolls processing firm ADP is scheduled to release its estimate of December private-sector payrolls at 8:15 a.m. ET. The Labor Department is scheduled to release data on weekly jobless claims at 8:30 a.m ET. Various retailers are scheduled to report December sales on Thursday. Constellation Brands Inc STZ is projected to post its Q3 earnings at $0.53 per share on sales of $722.8 million. Apollo Group Inc APOL is estimated to report its Q1 EPS at $1.18 on revenue of $1.16 billion. Monsanto Co MON is projected to report its FQ1 EPS at $0.16 on sales of $2.05 billion. Family Dollar Stores Inc FDO is projected to post its Q1 EPS at $0.67 on revenue of $2.17 billion. A. Schulman Inc SHLM is estimated to post its Q1 EPS at $0.42 on revenue of $618.80 million. Helen of Troy Limited HELE is estimated to post its Q3 EPS at $1.03 on revenue of $323.95 million. Global Payments Inc GPN is projected to post its Q2 EPS at $0.87 on revenue of $524.75 million. Zumiez Inc ZUMZ now projects its Q4 profit of $0.57 to $0.58 per share, versus its earlier forecast of $0.52 to $0.54 per share. Its December same-store sales surged 10%. Mosaic Company MOS reported upbeat quarterly profit. European markets were lower today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index dropped 0.64%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved down 0.58%, French CAC 40 index fell 0.85% and German DAX 30 index dropped 0.61%. France sold €8 billion of bonds in an auction. Asian markets ended lower, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average dropping 0.7894%, China's Shanghai Composite declining 0.97% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving down 1.01%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 0.4598% and India's Sensex dropped 0.16%. Nymex crude-oil futures fell $0.62 to $102.60 a barrel. The euro dropped 0.8% against the dollar to trade at $1.2841. However, the dollar rose 0.2% versus the Japanese yen to trade at 76.84 yen.