U.S. stock futures point lower for second day - MarketWatch

U.S. stock futures point lower for second day - MarketWatch

Amazon.com (AMZN:

) dropped 11% in Frankfurt, as it more than doubled its fourth-quarter profit, but its operating margin for the quarter, and its outlook for this year, disappointed investors. See full story.

"The weakness in gross margins has been disappointing over the last two quarters, and with little faith that margins will improve in 2008 we cannot recommend investor buy shares," said Brian Bolan, director of research at Jackson Securities, in a note to clients.

MBIA (MBI:

MBI

News, chart, profile, more

Last:

) reported a $2.3 billion loss during the fourth quarter, after taking a big loss for the securities it guarantees due to the U.S. housing downturn. See full story.

Novellus (NVLS:

NVLS

may lose some ground after the chip-equipment maker said first-quarter revenue may be up to 11% below analyst estimates.

Among other heavyweights detailing earnings early Thursday, Procter & Gamble (PG:

PG) reported a 14% rise in quarterly profit to $3.27 billion and also revealed plans to spin-off its coffee unit.

Colgate-Palmolive Co.'s (CL:

CL) fourth-quarter net income edged up to $414.9 million as sales rose 13% to $3.64 billion, topping expectations. It also predicted double-digit earnings growth in 2008.

Still to come are earnings from Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY:

BMY

) , and after the closing bell, Google (GOOG:

GOOG) .

Asian markets traded erratically, though Japan's Nikkei closed up 1.9%. The FTSE 100 dropped 1.4% in London. See global markets page.