US Stock Futures Down As Investors Await Economic Data, Intel Earnings In Focus

US stock futures are lower this morning as investors await data on the labor market and international trade. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial dropped 14 points to 11,694 and S&P 500 futures moved down 1.70 points to 1,281.70. Nasdaq 100 futures fell 1.25 points to 2,303.20. US stocks closed higher yesterday, with the blue-chip Dow index gaining 83.56 points, or 0.72%. Data on weekly jobless claims, December producer prices and November international trade are due at 8:30 a.m. ET. Wall Street expects Intel Corp INTC to report its Q4 EPS at $0.53. KBR Inc KBR projected its FY11 earnings between $2.05 per share and $2.30 per share, versus its earlier projections of $2.18 per share. However, analysts were expecting FY11 earnings of $2.03 per share. The Spanish government sold 5-year bonds worth 3 billion euros ($3.9 billion). Italy also conducted a bond sale today. Investors are awaiting the European Central Bank's policy meeting. Negative sentiment ruled the European markets today. While STOXX Europe 600 Index has dropped 0.29%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved down 0.30%. Asian markets ended in the positive territory, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rising 0.73%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving up 1.44% and China's Shanghai Composite gaining 0.23%. The euro rose 0.3% to $1.3162. The dollar index (DXY) gained 0.01% to 80.04. Oil futures dropped $0.15 to $91.71 per barrel in electronic trading on Globex, while gold futures fell $6.10 to $1,379.80 an ounce. Read more from Benzinga's Markets.