US Stock Futures Slide Ahead Of Economic Data

US stock futures traded lower in early pre-market trade. The S&P/Case-Shiller home price index for January will be released at 9:00 a.m. ET, while the Chicago PMI for March will be released at 9:45 a.m. ET. The Conference Board's consumer confidence index for March will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 96 points to 17,764.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 11.35 points to 2,064.15. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index slipped 22.60 points to 4,349.90.

European markets were lower today, with the Spanish Ibex Index falling 0.33%, STOXX Europe 600 Index declining 0.47% and German DAX 30 index dropping 0.90%. French CAC 40 Index slipped 0.57% and London's FTSE 100 Index fell 1.04%. In Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average fell 1.05%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index climbed 0.18%, China's Shanghai Composite Index declined 1.02% and India's BSE Sensex fell 0.07%.

Analysts at Cowen & Company downgraded

from Outperform to Market Perform and raised the price target from $57.00 to $61.50. Catamaran shares jumped 23.82% to close at $59.83 yesterday.