Stock futures drop ahead of retail sales, consumer sentiment data

[November 13, 2015]  By Abhiram Nandakumar

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were slightly lower on Friday, a day after a sharp selloff that saw S&P 500 and the Dow close below a key technical level, and ahead of retail sales and consumer sentiment data, amid growing concerns of a slowdown in demand.

* Wall Street suffered its worst session in over a month on Thursday as lower commodity prices weighed on energy and materials stocks and comments by a Federal Reserve policymaker hinted at an approaching interest-rate hike.

* The Dow and S&P 500 closed below their 200-day moving averages, which some traders believe portends additional declines.

* Concerns of a global economic slowdown continued to weigh on commodity prices on Friday, but crude prices recovered slightly from a sharp drop on Friday. [O/R]

* U.S. companies, already faced with a potential rate hike in December and a strong dollar, have been reporting signs of slowing demand.

* Cisco, late on Thursday, said order growth was slowing and its enterprise business outside the United States was weakening. Department store chain Nordstrom <JWN.N> followed Macy's <M.N> in cutting its full-year forecast.
 

* Dow component Cisco's <CSCO.O> shares fell 5 percent to $26.42 premarket after the network equipment maker forecast adjusted profit and revenue growth below estimates.

* Nordstrom <JWN.N> sank 20.75 percent to $50.30 after its weak results and forecast. Fossil <FOSL.O> dropped 19.6 percent to $41.06 after the watchmaker said sales in the holiday quarter could fall as much as 16 percent.

* Economic data due on Friday is expected to show that U.S. retail sales rose 0.3 percent in October after inching up 0.1 percent in September. The data is due at 8:30 a.m. ET.

* Also scheduled for the same time is the Labor Department's producer price index for October, which is expected to have gained 0.2 percent, after falling 0.5 percent in September.

* The University of Michigan's preliminary consumer sentiment index is forecast to have risen to 91.5 in November. The data is slated for release at 10:00 a.m.

* With 90 percent of the S&P 500 companies having reported quarterly results, investors will turn their focus to economic data for a clearer picture of the state of the economy ahead of the Fed's meeting in December.

* The central bank is widely expected to lift rates off near-zero levels, as economic data appears to support its view that the economy was strong enough to withstand higher rates.

* Perrigo dropped 8.3 percent to $143.50 after Reuters reported that Mylan's $26 billion hostile bid for generic drug maker was not likely to succeed. Mylan was up 8.8 percent at $47.10.

* Yum Brands rose 4.7 percent to $70.25 after its same-store sales in China grew 5 percent in October.

Futures snapshot at 6:47 a.m. ET:

* S&P 500 e-minis were down 5 points, or 0.25 percent, with 141,220 contracts traded.

* Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 17.5 points, or 0.38 percent, on volume of 19,893 contracts.

* Dow e-minis were down 50 points, or 0.29 percent, with 18,090 contracts changing hands.

(Reporting by Abhiram Nandakumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)
 

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