(By Balachander) U.S. stock index futures pointed to a lower on the Wall Street as fresh concerns over the economic crisis in Europe offset upbeat earnings reports from companies including Microsoft, General Electric and Google Inc.
Mini Dow Industrial Average futures shed 76 points to 12,804. The Nasdaq Futures fell 9.75 points to 2,642.50. Standard and Poor's 500 futures dipped 9.70 points to 1,362.20.
Earnings continued to be on the focus as there are no major economic data scheduled for the day.
On Thursday, U.S. stocksclosed on a positive noteamid upbeat earnings reports especially from technology companies, including International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) and EBay Inc. (EBAY).
Hot Stocks Of The Day: MSFT, GE, GOOG, AMD, SNDK, CMG, CPHD, FSL
In corporate news, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) gained 1.35 percent in premarket after the world's largest software company's quarterly adjusted earnings and revenue came in better than market expectations. The Redmond, Washington-based company posted a loss - its first-ever as a public company - as it took a $6.2 billion noncash goodwill impairment charge related to the acquisition of aQuantive Inc.
General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE) reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings, and said the company is on course for double-digit profit growth at its Industrial and GE Capital segments this year. Shares edged lower in premarket.
Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) added 2.73 in premarket after the search engine giant reported a 11.2 percent increase in quarterly earnings on a 35 percent revenue jump and greater momentum in products like Android, Chrome and YouTube.
Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE:CMG) tumbled 18.57 percent in premarket after the Denver, Colorado-based operator of food restaurants posted lower than expected revenue for the second quarter amid slower customer traffic growth.
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE:AMD) shed 3.29 percent in premarket after the chipmaker reported a decline quarterly earnings and revenue, citing softer desktop channel sales in China and Europe as well as a weaker consumer spending environment.
SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ:SNDK) soared 10.78 percent in premarket after the maker of NAND flash memory storage devices posted quarterly results that topped Wall Street projections.
Cepheid (NASDAQ:CPHD) plunged 17.68 percent in premarket after the California-based molecular diagnostics company posted a 38 percent drop in quarterly earnings as revenue growth was offset by an increase in costs.
Freescale Semiconductor Ltd. (NYSE:FSL) slumped 16.26 percent in premarket after the Austin, Texas-based provider of embedded processors guided sales for the third quarter below market expectations.
Global Markets:
European markets traded sharply lower ahead of a conference call between Eurozone finance ministers, who are expected to finalize details of the proposed 100 billion euros bailout deal to Spain to recapitalize its troubled banks. Germany's DAX down 1.03 percent to trade at 6,688.63. France's CAC40 declined 1.52 percent to trade at 3,214.04. U.K.'s FTSE 100 fell 0.82 percent to trade at 5,667.16.
Asian markets closed mixed, with China's Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index falling 0.74 percent to finish at 2,168.64. Japan's Nikkei 225 dropped 1.43 percent to end at 8,669.87. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 0.42 percent to end at 19,640.80. India's BSE Sensex finished at 17,158.44, down 0.70 percent.
Market Scan:
Ahead of the opening bell, crude oil futures declined 2.01 percent to $90.800 per barrel. Gold futures dipped 0.31 percent to $1,575.5 per ounce.
In the currency market, the euro traded 0.68 percent lower against the U.S. dollar at 1.2197 and the British pound slipped 0.37 percent against the greenback to 1.5667. The dollar edged 0.04 percent lower against the Japanese yen to 78.5600.