Investing.com - U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower open on Thursday, as investors remained cautious ahead of the release of highly anticipated U.S. retail sales data, as well as a string of earnings reports later in the day.
Ahead of the open, the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures pointed to a 0.50% decline, S&P 500 futures signaled a 0.51% drop, while the Nasdaq 100 futures indicated a 0.50% loss.
Investors were awaiting data on U.S. retail sales, due out later in the day, amid concerns that sales slumped in January after a 0.2% rise in December. Recent weak jobs reports have raised concerns over whether the U.S. recovery has lost momentum form the end of last year.
Comcast Corp. was expected to be active, following reports the company agreed to acquire Time Warner Cable Inc. for about USD44 billion, combining the largest two U.S. cable companies in an all-stock deal. Comcast shares dropped 0.87% in pre-market trade.
Cisco Systems, down 3.72% in early trading, was also likely to be in focus after forecasting sales for the fiscal third quarter that may miss some analysts’ estimates, due to weakness in emerging markets and a decline in demand from telecommunications-service providers.
Applied Materials climbed 0.50% after hours, as the largest supplier of semiconductor-manufacturing equipment forecast fiscal second-quarter sales growth of as much as 10%.
Meanwhile, Apple saw shares declined 0.54% pre-market amid reports the tech giant is extending its supply chain clean up beyond Chinese factories and into African mines, in a move to cut the amount of"conflict minerals" that end up in its iPhones and iPads.
The iPhone maker was also in the spotlight as it was said to be in talks with Time Warner Cable and other potential partners to add video content to its next Apple TV device, which it plans to unveil in April.
Elsewhere, Las Vegas Sands was up 0.13% in extended trade, after saying it was making progress toward restoring service and repairing its internal systems in the U.S. On Wednesday, the casino operator announced that it had been attacked by hackers who defaced at least one company website and posted personal information about employees.
Other stocks likely to be in focus included PepsiCo, Discovery Communications, Molson Coors Brewing, AIG and Kraft Foods, all scheduled to report quarterly results later in the day.
Across the Atlantic, European stock markets were sharply higher. The EURO STOXX 50 slid 0.38%, France’s CAC 40 fell 0.25%, Germany's DAX edged down 0.16%, while Britain's FTSE 100 dropped 0.60%.
During the Asian trading session, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index dropped 0.54%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index tumbled 1.79%.