U.S. stock index futures fell on Thursday as renewed worries over sovereign debt in some euro zone countries kept investors away from riskier investments, including equities, ahead of U.S. jobs and factory data.
Oil fell toward $76 a barrel on Thursday as rising crude inventories in the United States signaled a rebound in U.S. economic activity was failing to translate into higher demand.
Stock futures for the Dow Jones industrial average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 fall 0.5 to 0.6 percent, pointing to a weaker start on Wall Street on Thursday.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc posted a 75 percent fall in fourth-quarter profits to $1.18 billion, as the oil major was punished for falling output and its focus on the depressed refining and natural gas businesses.
Costco Wholesale Corp reported a better-than-expected 8 percent increase in January same-store sales, helped by a weak dollar and higher gasoline prices.
Toyota Motor Corp expects costs and lost sales from its largest ever safety recall to total $2 billion for the year to March, but raised its outlook after posting its strongest operating profit in six quarters.
Lingering concerns about the global economy and a host of negative local factors pushed Asian stocks lower on Thursday, with Toyota hitting a 10-month low on investor concerns over its massive vehicle recall.
Toyota Motor Corp said its biggest ever safety recall would cost it up to $2 billion this quarter, but raised its outlook for the financial year to March after a forecast-beating third-quarter.
Toyota Motor Corp shares slid to a 10-month low on Thursday after the Obama administration stepped up the pressure on the world's largest carmaker to address a range of safety issues.
The top U.S. transportation official on Wednesday warned Toyota owners caught up in its massive recall to stop driving their cars, triggering alarm and confusion in a crisis that has engulfed the automaker.
Cisco Systems Inc's quarterly results and outlook exceeded Wall Street expectations as more customers upgraded their networks to handle growing Internet traffic, leading CEO John Chambers to declare a very strong recovery.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Wednesday said insurer AIG's contracts to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses were outrageous and appealed to Congress to help recoup payments.
Visa Inc posted a stronger-than-expected profit on Wednesday, helped by rising debit card processing volume.
Video game makers should begin to emerge in 2010 from one of their worst industry downturns on record, but investors remain cautious about a sector that has been plagued by bad news.
President Barack Obama said Tuesday in a letter to Senate Majority leader Harry Reid he wasn't saying anything negative about Las Vegas.
A U.S. military helicopter crashed in woods in South- western Germany on Wednesday, killing at least two people, German police said.
The Australian Dollar opens lower against the greenback today at 0.8815 after mixed local trade data released yesterday.
Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh said on Wednesday that regulatory improvements alone would not prevent future financial crises and the government must be willing to let firms fail.
Stocks mostly fell on Wednesday as Pfizer's disappointing outlook weighed on the health sector, and President Obama's pledge to complete banking and healthcare reform revived fears of increased regulation.
In these turbulent economic times, more bad news about household finances may be the last thing you're prepared to hear. But don't tune out just yet: The findings from a new Financial Capability Survey paint a troubling picture of the current state of financial capability in the U.S. adult population.
With jobs at the top of the U.S. political agenda, private employers reported the smallest payroll decline in nearly two years in January while the vast U.S. services sector grew slightly, data showed on Wednesday.
The Obama administration stepped up the pressure on Toyota Motor Corp on Wednesday to address a range of safety issues as investors bolted at signs of a deepening crisis for the world's largest automaker.
