(By Salman - iStockAnalyst Writer)US stock futures edged lower on Thursday on worse than expected housing and weekly initial claims data.

At 8:37 am ET, Standard & Poor's 500 Index futures expiring in March fell 6.10 points to 830.70. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures decreased 70 points to 8108. Nasdaq Composite Index futures dropped 1 point to 1180.50.

A release by Department of Labor on Wednesday showed number of Americans filing first- time claims for unemployment benefits jumped 62,000 to 589,00 in the week ending Jan. 17. Economists had forecast jobless claims to rise to 548,000. The four-week average of seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims, a less volatile gauge, as unchanged at 519,250. Continuing claims for the week ending Dec. 10 jumped 58,750 to 4.56 million, a 26 year high.

A Department of Commerce release showed housing starts fell a record 15% in December to seasonally adjusted annual rate of 550,000, the lowest since records began in 1959. Economists had projected Housing Starts to decline to an annual rate of 610,000.

Building Permits dropped 12.3% to annual rate of 363,000 in December. Economists had forecast building permits to decline to 615,000.

Late on Wednesday, iPhone maker Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) said its first quarter net income rose to $1.61 billion, or $1.78 a share, from $1.58 billion, or $1.76 a share in the corresponding quarter a year ago. Analysts had projected earnings of $1.40 a share. Revenue rose 5.8% to $10.2 billion, topping the Wall Street estimates of $9.74 billion.

Online auctioneer eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) said on Wednesday that its fourth quarter net income fell 31% to $367 million, or 29 cents a share from $531 million, or 39 cents a share, in the same quarter a year ago. Excluding one-time items, the company earned 41 cents a share, beating the consensus estimates of 39 cents a share. Revenue decreased 6% to $2.04 billion, falling short of Wall Street estimates of $2.12 billion.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ: STX) announced that it swung to a fiscal second-quarter loss of $496 million, or $1.02 a share from a profit of $403 million or 73 cents a share in the year ago quarter. Revenue slid 34% to $2.27 billion from $3.42 billion.

Early on Thursday, Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) reported that its fourth quarter net income tumbled 69% to 576 million euros ($751 million), or 0.15 euro a share, from 1.84 billion euros, or 0.47 euro a share, earned in the year ago quarter. On an adjusted basis, the company earned 0.26 euro a share. Revenue dropped 19% to 12.66 billion euros. Analysts on average were looking for earnings of 0.22 euro a share on revenue of 13 billion.

Defense contractor Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) said that fourth quarter earnings increased 3% to $823 million, or $2.05 a share from $799 million, or $1.89 a share in the prior year quarter.