US Stock Futures Down; All Eyes On EU Summit

US stock futures are lower this morning. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 92 points to 12,461.00 and S&P 500 index futures fell 9 points to 1,316.50. Nasdaq 100 futures declined 16 points to 2,541.75. US stocks closed higher on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising 0.26% to 12,534.67, the S&P 500 index gaining 0.90% to 1,331.85 and the Nasdaq 100 index surging 0.74% to 2,875.32. Data on weekly jobless claims will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. A final reading of Q1 GDP will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. European Union leaders will begin a two-day meeting in Brussels on Thursday. American Greetings AM is expected to report its Q1 earnings at $0.69 per share on revenue of $415.66 million. Nike NKE is expected to post its Q4 EPS at $1.37 on revenue of $6.52 billion. Schnitzer Steel Industries SCHN is projected to report its Q3 EPS at $0.25 on revenue of $876.03 million. Worthington Industries WOR is expected to report its Q4 earnings at $0.53 per share on revenue of $682.41 million. Research In Motion Limited RIMM is projected to post a Q1 loss at $0.01 per share on revenue of $3.11 billion. MSC Industrial Direct Co MSM is estimated to report its Q3 EPS at $1.11 on revenue of $618.19 million. Family Dollar Stores FDO is estimated to report its Q3 EPS at $1.07 on revenue of $2.37 billion. Flow International FLOW reported a strong rise in its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings. Paychex PAYX posted a rise in its Q4 profit. European markets were lower today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index fell 0.91%, London's FTSE 100 Index dropped 0.94%, French CAC 40 index declined 1.27% and German DAX 30 index fell 1.74%. Asian markets ended mostly lower, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average gaining 1.65%, China's Shanghai Composite dropping 0.95% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rising 0.04%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index declined 0.79% and India's Sensex fell 0.09%. Nymex crude-oil futures dropped $0.35 to trade at $79.86 a barrel in electronic trade. However, gold futures declined $10.50 an ounce to trade at $1,567.90. The dollar index (DXY) gained 0.1% to 82.703. The euro declined 0.4% versus the dollar to trade at $1.2420. The US dollar dropped 0.5% versus the Japanese yen to trade at 79.28 Japanese yen.