Global-growth gloom weighs on futures: U.S. Futures Indications for August 30, 2012

By William L. Watts, MarketWatch 

FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) — Gloom over prospects for global growth kept U.S. stock-index futures under pressure Thursday morning, a day before Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s eagerly awaited speech in Jackson Hole, Wyo. 

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJU2 -0.29% fell 32 points to 13,052.

S&P 500 Index futures SPU2 -0.34% lost 4.1 points to 1,403.10. Nasdaq 100 futures NDU2 -0.37% declined 8.25 points to 2,773. 

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“Investors remain in a heightened state of alert ahead of Bernanke’s speech and are looking for safe havens where they can be found,” said Mike McCudden, head of derivatives at Interactive Investor in London.

That has left equities to drift lower. Asian stocks saw sharp losses Thursday, due in part to weak data from Japan, where retail sales posted a 0.8% drop, the first negative reading since November. Read: Japan's retail sales swing negative in July . 

European stocks also traded lower, with the Stoxx 600 Europe index XX:SXXP -0.35% declining 0.3%.

The European Commission said its euro-zone economic-sentiment indicator dropped more than expected, to 86.1 in August from 87.9 in July, leaving it near a three-year low. Read: Euro-zone Aug. economic sentiment indicator falls .

Overshadowing Bernanke?

Strategists said Europe may end up overshadowing Bernanke, particularly if the Fed chairman offers no specific clues regarding prospects for an additional round of quantitative easing when he delivers his speech to the Kansas City Federal Reserve’s annual gathering of global central bankers.

ECB President Mario Draghi, who had been scheduled to participate in a Saturday panel discussion in Jackson Hole, earlier this week canceled the trip.

No other members of the ECB’s five-member executive body will attend, either, boosting speculation that officials are moving to put meat on the bones of a bond-buying plan outlined by Draghi at his monthly news conference on Aug. 2. 

The ECB Governing Council meets on Sept. 6.

“For now, Europe is in a holding pattern ahead of clarity surrounding the next move in the great ECB bond-buying maneuverings and the U.S. is in limbo ahead of Bernanke’s Jackson Hole appearance tomorrow. For the latter, speculation mounts that Bernanke won’t say anything overly new in his speech,” said James Reid, strategist at Deutsche Bank, in a note. 

With revised second-quarter gross-domestic-product data on Wednesday showing that the U.S. economy continues to grow, albeit below trend, “there won’t likely be a huge reaction to nothing specific being flagged tomorrow. For the immediate next few weeks, Europe is likely to be of ‘primordial’ importance to global markets,” Reid said. See: Bernanke might not take the QE3 plunge .

Data points and retail

On the data front, weekly jobless claims for the week ended Aug. 24 are scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Eastern. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch forecast first-time claims to decline slightly, to 370,000 from 372,000 a week earlier.

Personal income and consumer spending data for July are scheduled for release at 8:30 a.m.

Same-store sales data are expected ahead of the opening bell from several leading retailers, including Target Corp. TGT +0.71% , Macy’s Inc. M +0.12% , Gap Inc. GPS +0.17% , Costco Wholesale Corp. COST +0.56% and Kohl’s Corp. KSS -0.10% . 

Reuters

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Danish biopharmaceutical company Genmab A/S on Thursday said it granted Janssen Biotech Inc., a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson JNJ -0.21% , an exclusive global license to develop and commercialize a treatment for a form of cancer found in bone marrow. The deal could be worth up to $1.1 billion. Read: Genmab signs cancer drug deal worth up to $1.1B . 

Nymex crude-oil futures CLV2 -0.13% dropped 20 cents to $95.29 a barrel.

Gold futures GCZ2 -0.19% declined $4.10 to trade at $1,658.90.

The dollar index DXY -0.10% , a measure of the U.S. unit against a basket of six rivals, fell 0.1% to 81.469. 

The euro EURUSD +0.1025% rose 0.1% to $1.2548, while the dollar slipped 0.1% to 78.63 Japanese yen USDJPY -0.1207%  

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William L. Watts is MarketWatch's European bureau chief, based in Frankfurt.