Stock index futures fell on Friday as investors awaited consumer sentiment and retail sales data to get a better reading on the state of the fragile economic recovery.

The Labor Department is scheduled to release the July Consumer Price Index at 8:30 a.m.. Economists in a Reuters survey expected an 0.2 percent increase, compared with an 0.1 percent decrease in June.

July retail sales data will be released at the same time. Economists look for an 0.5 percent rise, compared with an 0.5 percent drop in June.

At 9:55 a.m. EDT, Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers reports the preliminary August consumer sentiment index. Economists forecast a reading of 69.3, compared with 67.8 in the final July report.

We don't just have enough catalyst for a rebound, even after a three-day decline, said Tom Schrader, managing director of U.S. equity trading at Stifel Nicolaus Capital in Baltimore.

He said the market needs to see very strong data to offset fear sparked by the Federal Reserve's gloomier economic outlook earlier this week.

Shares of retailer J.C. Penney Co Inc fell 2.8 percent to $20.22 in premarket trade following second-quarter results.

S&P 500 futures edged down 4.1 points and were below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures dipped 27 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 7.75 points.

European stocks slipped as soft European debt sales overshadowed better-than-expected gross domestic product growth in Germany and France, said Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak + Co in New York.

The 5-year and 15-year bond auctions in Italian debt were soft as a bid-to-cover in both were only about 1.25 versus 1.41 for last month's 5-year, he said.

India may shut down Google Inc and Skype Internet-based messaging services over security concerns, the Financial Times reported, as the government threatened a similar crackdown on Research in Motion Ltd's BlackBerry services.

Shares of Telestone Technologies Corp fell 12 percent, while Nvidia Corp jumped 6 percent in extended trade on Thursday. Telestone, a developer of telecommunications network technology, said quarterly profit fell 15 percent, while chipmaker Nvidia reported a quarterly loss.

U.S. stocks ended down for a third straight day on Thursday, setting the stage for the biggest weekly decline in six weeks, as an unexpected rise in jobless claims and a sobering revenue outlook from Cisco Systems Inc underscored the hurdles to economic recovery.

(Reporting by Angela Moon; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

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