US Stock Futures Down After Fed Outlook; Jobless Claims Data In Focus

US stock futures are lower this morning, after the Federal Reserve lowered its outlook for US economic growth. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 45 points to 11,978.00 and futures on the S&P 500 stock index fell 6.10 points to 1,273.70. Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 8.50 points to 2,221.00. US stocks closed lower on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average dipping 0.66% to 12,109.67, the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index dropping 0.65% to 1,287.14 and the NASDAQ composite index declining 0.67% to 2,669.19. Data on weekly jobless claims data will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET, while data on sales of new homes will be released at 10 a.m. ET. Oracle Corp ORCL is estimated to post its Q4 earnings at $0.71 per share on revenue of $10.75 billion. Discover Financial Services DFS is projected to post its Q2 EPS at $0.70 on revenue of $1.70 billion. H&R Block Inc HRB is expected to report its Q4 earnings at $2.15 per share on revenue of $2.32 billion. Finish Line Inc FINL is projected to report its Q1 earnings at $0.30 per share on revenue of $301.43 million. Micron Technology Inc MU is projected to report its Q3 earnings at $0.16 per share on revenue of $2.37 billion. ConAgra Foods Inc CAG is expected to post its Q4 EPS at $0.48 on revenue of $3.19 billion. Bed Bath & Beyond Inc BBBY reported an upbeat quarterly profit and lifted its full-year earnings forecast. The company reported its quarterly net income at $180.6 million, or $0.72 per share, up from $137.6 million, or $0.52 per share, in the year-earlier period. Its quarterly sales surged 9.7% to $2.11 billion. Analysts were expecting a profit of $0.63 per share on revenue of $2.08 billion. Red Hat Inc RHT reported better-than-expected fiscal first-quarter profit. The company's net income jumped to $32.5 million, or $0.17 per share, from $24.1 million, or $0.12 per share, in the year-ago period. The company's revenue surged 27% to $264.7 million. Excluding one-time items, Red Hat's earnings came in at $0.24 per share for the quarter. Analysts were expecting earnings of $0.22 per share on revenue of $253.7 million. The Federal Reserve kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at a historical low of 0.25% in June and gave no indications of an additional round of quantitative easing. The Fed also lowered its 2011 economic growth forecast for the US to a range of 2.7% to 2.9%, versus its earlier forecast of 3.1% to 3.3%. The HSBC flash purchasing mangers index of Chinese manufacturing activity declined to 50.1, from a reading of 51.6 in May. Most Asian markets ended lower, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average dropping 0.3395%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving down 0.64% and China's Shanghai Composite surging 1.44%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.4613% and India's Sensex jumped 1.07%. European markets were lower today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index has dropped 0.67%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved down 0.92%, German DAX 30 index fell 0.97% and France CAC 40 index fell 0.95%. The Markit composite PMI reading for the euro zone dropped to 53.6 in June, its lowest level since October 2009, versus 55.8 in May. The US unit gained 0.3% versus the Japanese yen to trade at 80.60 yen. The euro dropped 0.5% against the dollar to trade at $1.4242. Nymex crude-oil futures dropped $1.95 to $93.43 a barrel in electronic trade.