US Stock Futures Decline Ahead Of Housing Starts Report

Pre-open movers US stock futures traded lower in early pre-market trade. The Federal Open Market Committee will begin its 2-day meeting today. Data on housing starts for May will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 60.50 points to 17,651.50, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 6.85 points to 2,068.65. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index declined 20.60 points to 4,407.40. A Peek Into Global Markets European markets were lower today, with the Spanish Ibex Index falling 1.39 percent, STOXX Europe 600 Index declining 0.67 percent and German DAX 30 index dropping 1 percent. French CAC 40 Index slipped 0.81 percent and London's FTSE 100 Index fell 0.62 percent. In Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average fell 0.64 percent, China's Shanghai Composite Index tumbled 3.47 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slipped 1.10 percent and India's BSE Sensex rose 0.38 percent. Broker Recommendation Analysts at William Blair downgraded Avalanche Biotechnologies Inc AAVL from Outperform to Market Perform. Avalanche Biotechnologies shares fell 48.56 percent to $20.00 in pre-market trading. Breaking news

• Arrow Electronics Inc. ARW has been selected as a global distribution partner for Macronix International Co., Ltd., a leading provider of non-volatile memory semiconductor solutions. To read the full news, click here.
• Hudson Global, Inc. HSON, a leading global talent solutions company, announced today that it has completed the previously announced sale of its Americas IT staffing business to Mastech, Inc. To read the full news, click here.
• RedHill Biopharma Ltd. RDHL today announced that the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has accepted RedHill's Clinical Trial Application to initiate a second Phase III study of RHB-104 for Crohn's disease. To read the full news, click here.
• Alkermes plc ALKS today announced that data from studies of the company's pipeline of central nervous system (CNS) drug candidates in schizophrenia and depression, including ALKS 3831, aripiprazole lauroxil and ALKS 5461, will be presented at the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology (ASCP) Annual Meeting in Miami, Fla., June 22-25, 2015. To read the full news, click here.