US Stock Futures Drop; All Eyes On Jobs Report

US stock futures traded lower in early pre-market trade. Data on nonfarm payroll employment for December will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET, while wholesale inventories data for November will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 54 points to 17,766.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 6.50 points to 2,048.50. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index dropped 7.50 points to 4,224.75.

European markets were lower today, with the Spanish Ibex Index falling 2.86%, STOXX Europe 600 Index declining 0.46% and German DAX 30 index dropping 0.62%. French CAC 40 Index slipped 0.79% and London's FTSE 100 Index fell 0.59%. German industrial output declined 0.1% on the month in November, while French industrial production dropped 0.3% in November versus October. In Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rose 0.18%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index climbed 0.35%, China's Shanghai Composite Index slipped 0.24% and India's Sensex jumped 0.67%.China's consumer price index gained 1.5% y/y in December, while producer price index declined 3.3% in December.

Analysts at Longbow Research downgraded

from Buy to Neutral and removed the price target of $102.00. Stanley Black & Decker's shares closed at $96.43 yesterday.