US Stock Futures Signal Lower Start On Wall Street

US stock futures traded lower in early pre-market trade. The Markit manufacturing PMI for December will be released at 9:45 a.m. ET, while the ISM manufacturing composite index for December and construction spending data for November will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 333.5 points to 17,007.5, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 39.50 points to 1,996.00. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index declined 101.38 points to 4,486.38.

European markets were lower today, with the Spanish Ibex Index declining 2.84 percent, STOXX Europe 600 Index dropping 2.86 percent and German DAX 30 index dropping 4.25 percent. French CAC 40 Index slipped 2.80 percent. In Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average fell 3.06 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 2.68 percent, China's Shanghai Composite Index dipped 6.86 percent and India's BSE Sensex dropped 2.05 percent.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley downgraded

from Overweight to Equal-weight. Abbott Laboratories shares closed at $44.91 on Thursday.