Before the bell: Stock futures lower on jobs report, retail sales data

U.S. stock futures were mostly lower Thursday morning ahead of today's jobless claims report. Yesterday, ADP released abysmal figures for the private sector jobs and tomorrow the government will release its employment report, putting the employment situation in focus on Wall Street these days. Daily earning warnings and announcement of job cuts from different companies don't help instill confidence in the economy. Meanwhile, retailers have started reporting December sales, which are expected to be quite dismal.

Overseas, major Asian markets fell. European markets followed suit as global investors again are concerned about a global recession, putting an end to the new year's rally spurred by hopes stimulus plans would help most countries' economies to rebound later this year. Meanwhile, the Bank of England lowered its key interest rate by a half point to 1.5%, the lowest rate since the bank's founding in 1694. However, Warnings from President-elect Obama about the economy as he calls for immediate action from congress also put the economic situation in the spotlight at home and overseas.

Oil prices rose slightly Thursday to just above $43 a barrel after a 12% plunge following an unexpectedly high increase in U.S. inventories. Fears that the Mideast conflict would spill over as rockets hit Israel from Lebanon didn't put an upward pressure on oil prices. What might do that is the tension between Russia and Ukraine and Europe after Russia stopped gas supply to several European countries. The heads of the Russian and Ukrainian gas companies held an unexpected meeting in Moscow without any breakthrough.

On the economic front, weekly initial jobless claims will be reported at 8:30 am. Watch out for the reaction to these numbers.

[Update 9:05 am: Jobless claims actually declined last week, but the total level remained high. Wal-Mart's sales were lower than expected. Both put further pressure on the markets.]