US Stock Futures Down; McDonald's Earnings, Jobless Claims Data In Focus

Pre-open movers US stock futures declined in early pre-market trade, ahead of earnings from McDonald's MCD. Data on weekly jobless claims will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET, while the Markit PMI manufacturing index (flash) for January will be released at 8:58 a.m. ET. Data on existing home sales for December, the FHFA house price index for November and the Conference Board's index of leading indicators for December will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 59 points to 16,258.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures declined 5.50 points to 1,833.10. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index fell 1.50 points to 3,619.00. A Peek Into Global Markets European markets were mostly lower today, with the Spanish Ibex Index gaining 0.34%, London's FTSE 100 index dropping 0.13% and STOXX Europe 600 Index falling 0.08%. German DAX 30 index declined 0.14% and French CAC 40 Index fell 0.02%. The euro-zone current account surplus widened to 23.5 billion euros ($32.0 billion) in November, versus a revised surplus of EUR22.2 billion in October. Germany's preliminary composite PMI climbed to 55.9 in January versus 55.0 in December, according to data firm Markit. Asian markets ended mostly lower today. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average fell 0.79%, China's Shanghai Composite dropped 0.47%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index tumbled 1.51% and India's BSE Sensex gained 0.17%. The flash reading of the HSBC/Markit China manufacturing PMI declined to 49.6 in January, versus a final reading of 50.5 in December. Broker Recommendation Analysts at Morgan Stanley downgraded TAL Education Group XRS from “overweight” to “equal-weight.” The target price for TAL Education Group has been raised from $17.60 to $25.60. TAL Education's shares closed at $25.61 yesterday. Breaking news

• Precision Castparts PCP reported a 28% rise in its fiscal third-quarter earnings. Precision Castparts posted its quarterly profit of $433 million, or $2.96 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $338 million, or $2.30 per share. To read the full news, click here.
• Demandware DWRE today announced that it has acquired privately-held Mainstreet Commerce, a leading provider of cloud-based order management solutions. To read the full news, click here.
• Lockheed Martin LMT reported downbeat earnings for the fourth quarter. Lockheed Martin's quarterly net earnings from continuing operations declined 14.2% to $488 million, or $1.50 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $569 million, or $1.73 per share. To read the full news, click here.
• DG DGIT announced today that Republic Project, its cloud-based ad platform that enables agencies and brands to create, deliver and measure social and mobile rich media campaigns, is now a Facebook FB Preferred Marketing Developer (PMD). To read the full news, click here.