US Stock Futures Drop Ahead Of Earnings, Economic Data

US stock futures traded lower in early pre-market trade. Data on durable goods for December will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET, while the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index for November will be released at 9:00 a.m. ET. The Markit PMI services index for January will be released at 9:45 a.m. ET, Data on new home sales for December, The Conference Board's consumer confidence index for January and the Richmond Fed manufacturing index for January will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET. The Federal Open Market Committee will begin 2-day meeting today. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 95 points to 17,519.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 10.10 points to 2,043.50. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index declined 27 points to 4,242.25.

European markets were lower today, with the Spanish Ibex Index falling 1.33%, STOXX Europe 600 Index declining 0.71% and German DAX 30 index dropping 1.22%. French CAC 40 Index dipped 1.24% and London's FTSE 100 Index fell 0.54%. In Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rose 1.72%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.41%, China's Shanghai Composite Index slipped 0.89% and India's BSE Sensex jumped 1%.

Analysts at JP Morgan downgraded

from Overweight to Neutral. The price target for Microsoft has been lowered from $53 to $47. Microsoft's shares closed at $47.01 yesterday.