"Eurozone slips back into recession" Thursday 11/15/2012

U.S. stock futures turned flat to lower Thursday as shares of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. fell in preopen trading on the heels of the retailer's results, with investors waiting on data such as weekly jobless claims and consumer prices. A cautious tone for markets remained amid fiscal-cliff worries, which weighed on overseas markets. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJZ2 -0.11% fell 19 points to 12,525, while those for the Standard & Poor's 500 index SPZ2 +0.10% rose 0.4 point to 1,353.40. Nasdaq-100-index futures NDZ2 +0.15% added 1.5 points to 2,531. Dow tumbles nearly 200 points Stocks dropped to a three-month low Wednesday as growing political concerns in the U.S. and European economic weakness pushed the technology-heavy Nasdaq into correction territory. With the Thanksgiving holiday just a week away, "there may well be a temptation to de-risk portfolios," said Fawad Razaqzada, market strategist at GFT Markets, in a note. "That said with stocks already having been beaten down since the start of the month, this wouldn't necessarily be a bad move for all," said Razaqzada. Stock indexes fell to multi-month lows on Wednesday, on anxiety over budget negotiations in Washington and signs of increased tensions in the Middle East. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA -1.45% closed down 185.23 points, or 1.5%, to 12,570.95. Read: U.S. stocks drop sharply on 'cliff' concerns. Roughly coinciding with the late selling on Wall Street, President Barack Obama said he was open to revenue-raising ideas, but he stood firm on his insistence that there be higher taxes for the wealthiest Americans. Read: Obama open to tax ideas before talks begin. A heavy lineup of economic data will also come in for scrutiny from investors Thursday, with weekly jobless claims and consumer prices due up first at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch are forecasting the number of first-time claims for last week at 380,000, while consumer prices are expected to have edged up 0.1% in October. Two manufacturing surveys are also on tap. At 8:30 a.m. Eastern, the Empire State index will shed light on conditions in the New York region, then at 10 a.m. Eastern, the Philadelphia Fed survey is released. Read: Storm and 'cliff' muddy economic picture. THE FED Fed sticks to QE3 plan The Fed opts to continue its program of buying $40 billion in mortgage-back securities each month until it sees substantial improvement in the jobs market. • Text of Fed statement • Countdown to change at Fed • Bernanke defends QE from international criticism CALENDARS AND COLUMNS • U.S. economic calendar • Global calendar • Market Snapshot | Bond Report • Breaking-news alerts by email "Although gasoline prices have been low and the ISM has increased, we expect Empire manufacturing PMI to show a small decrease, because of the destruction caused by [Hurricane] Sandy and the following loss of power-hampered production," said analysts at Danske Bank in a research note. "This also goes for the Philly Fed survey, which we expect to decrease as well." Also Wednesday, Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser is due to speak at the Cato Institute at 4:30 p.m. Eastern. Wal-Mart shares fall after results Away from data, Wal-Mart WMT -0.70% shares fell 2.5% after the retailer posted third-quarter profit of $1.08 a share on sales of $113.2 billion. Analysts, on average, had expected the Bentonville, Ark., retailer to earn $1.07 a share on sales of $114 billion, according to a survey by FactSet. Also reporting ahead of the bell, fellow discounter Target Corp. TGT -1.14% reported third-quarter results. Read more. Dell Inc. DELL +1.91% and Sears Holdings Corp. SHLD -2.47% are among the other companies due to report Thursday. See more about Thursday;s big earnings. Across other markets, the Stoxx Europe 600 index XX:SXXP -0.76% fell 0.8%. Shares of heavyweight retailer Hennes & Mauritz SE SE:HMB -3.69% tumbled 3.7% after comparable sales for October sank 5%. Crude-oil futures eased slightly, drifting back toward $86 a barrel, while gold for December delivery fell around $10 after the World Gold Council said demand for the precious metal fell 11% on the year in the third quarter, driven by reduced appetite for coins and bars and lower consumption in China