U.S. stock-index futures dropped today, as European stocks and government bonds across the globe declined, amid data showing fewer workers filed applications for unemployment benefits last week.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.4 percent to 18,021, while those for the S&P 500 index dropped 0.5 percent to 2,105.75. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index gave up 0.7 percent to 4,495.50.
Germany’s DAX lost 1.1 percent and France’s CAC-40 fell 1.3 percent. The yield on the 10-year German bund hit 0.99 percent earlier today, marking its highest level since September.
Yields on 10-year bonds in Singapore hit their highest level in almost two years. Australian yields jumped to their highest levels of 2015 and yields in Japan hit their highest since November.
DATA:
Jobless claims decreased by 8,000 to 276,000 in the week ended May 30 from a revised 284,000 in the prior period, a Labor Department report showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 52 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for 278,000.
U.S. productivity in the first quarter fell by a revised 3.1% annual pace instead of 1.9%, fresh government figures show. Economists surveyed by MarkeWatch had expected a revised 3% drop in productivity owing to poor growth in the first three months of the year.
MOVERS:
T-Mobile (NYSE:TMUS) rose 6.5 percent in premarket trading after the Wall Street Journal reported that Dish Networks (NASDAQ:DISH) is in talks to merge with the company. Dish rose 6 percent.
FireEye (NASDAQ:FEYE) was up 3.4 percent after the company partnered with Visa to help defend clients against attacks on consumer payment data. Visa (NYSE:V) inched down 0.5 percent to $68.64.
Molycorp (NYSE:MCP) tumbled 23.9 percent to 40.1 cents after the rare earth miner missed an interest payment earlier this week, heightening concerns that the struggling company could file for bankruptcy before the end of the month.
J.M. Smucker (NYSE:SJM) was little changed at $118.16 after the company reported a quarterly loss hurt by higher green coffee costs and lower demand for its coffee products in the United States following price increases.
Wendy’s (NASDAQ:WEN) fell 1 percent in premarket trade as the fast-food franchise was downgraded to neutral from outperform and its stock-price target cut to $12 from $13 by Wedbush Securities.
Ciena (NYSE:CIEN) advanced 2.3 percent after posting better-than-expected second-quarter profits as the telecom equipment-maker enjoyed an increase in international sales and more demand for optical gear. Last month, the company said it would buy Cyan Inc. for $400 million.
COMMODITIES:
Spot gold rose to a session high of $1,204.31 an ounce and was down 0.04 percent at $1,189.30 an ounce. U.S. gold futures for August delivery settled down $1.10 at $1,188.70 an ounce.
Brent crude for July delivery recently rose 0.2 percent to $63.90 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate futures for July were trading up 0.3 percent at $59.83 a barrel.
OTHER MARKETS:
Asian markets ended mixed after a choppy session, with the Shanghai Composite Index turning a more-than-5-percent loss into a 0.8 percent gain.