(RTTNews) - The major European index futures are pointing towards a lower opening for the markets on Thursday. Global cues are weak, with the U.S. stocks plunging overnight and the Asian markets trading sharply lower Thursday. Oil prices fell for a fifth day Thursday on slowing demand.

U.S. stocks tumbled on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average plunging below the 8,000 mark for the first time since 2003 amid a weak economic outlook from the Federal Reserve and worries over the fate of the top-three automakers in the U.S. The Dow closed down 427.5 points or 5.1% at 7,997.3, the Nasdaq shed 96.9 points or 6.5% to 1,386.4 and the S&P 500 dropped 52.5 points or 6.1% to 806.6.

In the Asia-Pacific region Thursday, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index is plunging 5.5%, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index is losing 5.2%, South Korea’s KOSPI is shedding 5.8%, Australia’s All Ordinaries index is down 3.5%, and China’s Shanghai Composite index is giving away 1.2%.

At 10:43 p.m. ET, the Brent North Sea crude January futures were quoted at $50.87 a barrel, down 85 cents. In London Wednesday, Brent crude fell 12 cents to settle at $51.72 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange after the U.S. Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration reported that crude inventories rose by 1.6 million barrels last week to 313.5 million barrels.

In Europe, traders will focus on the German producer prices data for October, the Swiss October trade balance report, and the U.K. retail sales report for October. German producer price inflation is expected to drop one percentage point to an annual rate of 7.3% in October. In the U.K., retail sales are expected to fall 0.9% in October following a 0.4% decline in September. However, the annualized rate is expected to increase 1.4%.

Meanwhile, U.S. traders await the release of the weekly jobless claims report and the Philadelphia Fed’s manufacturing survey report for November. While the initial jobless claims are expected to come in at 505,00 for the week ended November15, down from 516,000 for the prior week, the index measuring the business conditions in the manufacturing sector is expected to fall to -35.0 following October’s level of -37.5.

The European markets fell Wednesday on persistent worries that a global economic downturn would hurt profits of banks and lower demand for crude oil and metals. A profit warning from BASF also weighed on investor sentiment. The FTSEurofirst 300 index of pan-European blue chips plunged 4.0% to 812.0 and the narrower DJ Stoxx 50 index tumbled 4.5% to 2,032.3. In Europe, the U.K.’s FTSE 100 index dropped 4.8% to 4,005.7, France’s CAC 40 index fell 4.0% to 3,087.9 and Germany’s DAX index shed 4.9% to 4,354.1.

In Asia Thursday, the euro fell to a new multi-day low of 0.8339 against the British pound, while it moved sideways against the currencies of the U.S. and Japan. At about 10:45 p.m. ET, the euro was quoted at 119.75 against the yen and 1.2506 against the dollar. The 15-nation currency finished Wednesday’s European session at 121.48 yen, 1.2577 dollar and 0.8358 pound.

In Europe, Royal Ahold, Air France-KLM Group, Daily Mail and General Trust, National Grid, Halfords Group, Hampson Industries, Mothercare, PayPoint, Young & Co.’s Brewery, and Voestalpine may move as these companies are scheduled to report earnings.

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Posted in Categories: Australia, Economy, Eurozone, Japan, Releases, Switzerland, UK, USA.

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