A Peek Into The Markets: U.S. Stock Futures Slip Ahead Of Fed Meeting

US stock futures traded lower in early pre-market trade. Data on retail sales and import prices for May will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Business inventories report for April will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET. The Federal Open Market Committee will begin two-day policy meeting today. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 29 points to 17,605.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 4.50 points to 2,064.75. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index declined 11.25 points to 4,405.50. Oil prices traded lower as Brent crude futures dropped 1.39 percent to trade at $49.63 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures also declined 1.56 percent to trade at $49.26 a barrel.

European markets were lower today, with the Spanish Ibex Index falling 1.16 percent, STOXX Europe 600 Index declining 1.24 percent and German DAX 30 index dropping 0.85 percent. The UK's FTSE index was trading lower by 1.19 percent, while French CAC 40 Index fell 1.32 percent. Eurozone industrial production increased 1.1 percent in April from March. U.K. consumer prices increased 0.3 percent year-over-year in May. In Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average fell 1 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index declined 0.61 percent, China's Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.32 percent and India's BSE Sensex dropped 1.06 points.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs downgraded

from Buy to Neutral, while raising the price target from $162.00 to $203.00. LinkedIn shares fell 0.11 percent to $192.00 in pre-market trading.