US Stock Futures Signal Lower Start On Wall Street

US stock futures traded lower in early pre-market trade. The NFIB small business optimism index for April will be released at 9:00 a.m. ET, while the Treasury budget for April will be released at 2:00 p.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 150.50 points to 17,890.50, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 17.30 points to 2,080.45. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index slipped 41.55 points to 4,389.70.

European markets were lower today, with the Spanish Ibex Index falling 1.59 percent, STOXX Europe 600 Index declining 1.46 percent and German DAX 30 index dropping 1.74 percent. French CAC 40 Index fell 1.25 percent and London's FTSE 100 Index fell 1.57 percent. In Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rose 0.02 percent, China's Shanghai Composite Index jumped 1.56 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index declined 1.12 percent and India's BSE Sensex dipped 2.29 percent.

Analysts at Macquarie downgraded

from Neutral to Underperform and raised the price target from $44.50 to $45.00. Verizon shares rose 0.79 percent to $88.00 in pre-market trading.