US Stock Futures Signal Lower Start On Wall Street

US stock futures tumbled in early pre-market trade, ahead of the Chicago purchasing managers index. The Chicago PMI for September will be released at 9:45 a.m. ET, while the Dallas Fed general business activity index for September will be released at 10:30 a.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 131 points to 15,064.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 14.90 points to 1,671.50. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index dropped 25.25 points to 3,197.75.

European markets were lower today, with the Spanish Ibex Index falling 1.19%, London's FTSE 100 index dropping 0.85% and STOXX Europe 600 Index declining 0.72%. German DAX 30 index fell 1.06% and French CAC 40 Index declined 1.19%. German retail sales rose 0.5% in August from July, versus economists' expectations for a 0.8% increase. Euro-zone inflation rate increased 1.1% y/y in September, versus a 1.3% rate in the previous month. Asian markets ended mostly lower today. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average fell 2.06%, China's Shanghai Composite climbed 0.68% and Australia's ASX/S&P500 dropped 1.60%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 1.50% and India's Sensex tumbled 1.76%. Japan's retail sales increased 1.1% y/y in August, while industrial output dropped 0.7% in August versus the earlier month. Japan's manufacturing PMI climbed to 52.5 in September, from 52.2 in August. The HSBC China Manufacturing PMI rose to a final reading of 50.2 in September, versus a reading of 50.1 in August.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley downgraded Johnson Controls

from “overweight” to “underweight.” The target price for Johnson Controls has been lowered from $45 to $40. Johnson Controls shares closed at $42.53 on Friday.