US Stock Futures Signal Lower Start On Wall Street; Weekly Jobless Claims Data In Focus; Cisco Shares Down In Pre-Market Trading

US stock futures are lower this morning, after decline in global equity markets. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 74 points to 12,523.00 and futures on the S&P 500 stock index fell 8.40 points to 1,330.30. Nasdaq 100 futures declined 20 points to 2,373.50. US stocks closed lower on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average dropping 1.02% to 12,630.03, the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index declining 1.11% to 1,342.08 and the NASDAQ composite index dipping 0.93% to 2,845.06. Data on weekly jobless claims, April wholesale prices and retail sales will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. DryShips Inc DRYS is projected to post its Q1 EPS at $0.16 on revenue of $234.12 million. Nordstrom Inc JWN is projected to report its Q1 EPS at $0.66 on revenue of $2.22 billion. Kohl's Corp KSS is estimated to report its Q1 earnings at $0.72 per share on revenue of $4.20 billion. NVIDIA Corp NVDA is projected to report its Q1 EPS at $0.19 on revenue of $946.89 million. Darling International Inc DAR is expected to post its Q1 EPS at $0.29 on revenue of $367.61 million. Shares of Cisco Systems Inc CSCO dropped about 3.4% in pre-market trading after the company reported an 18% decline in its FQ3 profit and issued weaker-than-expected projections for the current quarter. The company reported its quarterly profit at $1.8 billion, or $0.33 per share, down from $2.2 billion, or $0.37 per share, in the year-ago period. The company's revenue increased to $10.9 billion, from $10.4 billion. The company's adjusted income came in at $0.42 per share. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.37 per share on revenue of $10.87 billion. Symantec Corp SYMC reported its FQ4 net income at $168 million, or $0.22 per share, down from $184 million, or $0.23 per share, in the year-ago period. Its revenue increased to $1.67 billion from $1.53 billion. Symantec's adjusted earnings came in at $0.38 per share. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.36 per share on revenue of $1.6 billion. Symantec projects its FQ1 adjusted earnings between $0.36 and $0.37 per share and revenue between $1.57 billion and $1.59 billion. However, analysts expected adjusted earnings of $0.36 per share on revenue of $1.56 billion for the same period. Asian markets ended lower, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average dipping 1.50%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving down 1.68% and China's Shanghai Composite declining 1.37%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.94% and India's Sensex dropped 1.34%. Nissan Motor Co NSANY swung to a fiscal fourth-quarter profit, from a loss in the year-ago period. European markets were lower today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index has dropped 1.22%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved down 1.43%. Aegon NV AEG reported a 12% drop in its first-quarter net income. On Thursday, the International Energy Agency lowered its 2011 projections for growth in global oil-product demand to 1.3 million barrels a day. Crude-oil futures for June delivery declined $1.24 to $96.90 a barrel. Gold futures for June delivery dipped $15.60 to $1,486 an ounce. However, silver futures for July delivery fell $2.41 to $33.10 an ounce. The US dollar gained on Thursday, with the dollar index (DXY) rising 0.23% to 75.459. Read more from Benzinga's Markets.