Indications: Stock futures remain lower after economic data

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By Simon Kennedy & Kate Gibson, MarketWatch

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stock market futures fell Thursday after a further warning over the state of Greece's economy, with the telecom sector also in the spotlight after a major merger and downbeat results from Nokia and Qualcomm.

Stock index futures retained their losses after economic data showed the wholesale prices paid by producers climbed 0.7% in March, while Americans filing for the first time for jobless benefits fell by 24,000 last week.

S&P 500 futures fell 6.6 points to 1,193.8 and Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 13 points to 2,012.50. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 40 points to 11,019.

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The drop in futures came after the Eurostat statistics agency criticized the quality of Greece's budget data and said the debt-ridden country's deficit may be revised higher by as much as half a percentage point from an already-high 13.6%. See story on Greece's budget data.

The news sent the gap between Greek and German government bonds to a fresh record high, while the euro moved lower, dropping 0.5% against the dollar to stand at $1.3322.

Also on the economic calendar for Thursday, data on sales of existing homes due out after the Wall Street open.

TODAY'S INTERNATIONAL MARKET STORIES

Global Dow

• MarketWatch Topics: Greece • Asia Markets | Europe Markets | LatAm Markets • Canadian Markets | Israel Stocks | London • U.S.: Market Snapshot | After Hours

Tools• Latin American/Canadian indexes • European indexes | Asian indexes

More on the Markets • Bond Report | Oil News | Earnings Watch • Currencies | U.S. Economic Calendar

Earnings • Nokia net nearly triples, lags view on light sales • Nestle sales climb over 4%, topping estimates • ABB's shares fall as net profit drops 29% • Credit Suisse profit edges up, inflows improve

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Among companies in focus, Nokia /quotes/comstock/13*!nok/quotes/nls/nok (NOK 12.86, -2.09, -14.00%) shares lost 14% in premarket trading as the handset maker's near tripling of profit missed analyst estimates due to light revenue growth.

Qualcomm /quotes/comstock/15*!qcom/quotes/nls/qcom (QCOM 39.17, -3.46, -8.12%) dropped nearly 7% after the wireless chipmaker's fiscal third-quarter forecast also came up shy of market expectations.

But Qwest Communications International /quotes/comstock/13*!q/quotes/nls/q (Q 5.46, +0.22, +4.20%) climbed close to 8% after reaching a deal to buy be bought by CenturyLink /quotes/comstock/13*!ctl/quotes/nls/ctl (CTL 35.30, -0.90, -2.48%) , formerly known as CenturyTel, for about $11 billion in stock.

Also in telecom, blue chip Verizon Communications /quotes/comstock/13*!vz/quotes/nls/vz (VZ 29.08, -0.48, -1.63%) issued first-quarter financial results.

Of other movers, shares of eBay Inc. /quotes/comstock/15*!ebay/quotes/nls/ebay (EBAY 24.36, -1.93, -7.34%) dropped about 8% as the online auctioneer forecast second-quarter earnings and revenue below market expectations. See story on eBay earnings.

Further earnings reports due after markets close include Microsoft Corp. /quotes/comstock/15*!msft/quotes/nls/msft (MSFT 31.00, -0.33, -1.06%) and American Express /quotes/comstock/13*!axp/quotes/nls/axp (AXP 45.69, -0.30, -0.65%) , both Dow industrials components.

The announcement of further worries over Greece also caused European markets to turn lower Thursday.

U.S. stocks closed modestly higher on Wednesday, helped by strong earnings from Apple Inc and Boeing Co. The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.2% and the Dow industrials rose 0.1%, while the S&P 500 slipped 0.1% as health-care, energy and financial stocks moved lower.

Simon Kennedy is the City correspondent for MarketWatch in London. Kate Gibson is a reporter for MarketWatch, based in New York.