Stock futures fall as China data weighs ahead of bank earnings, economic data

By Medha Singh and Devik Jain

(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures fell on Thursday after a surprise drop in China’s retail sales signaled a bumpy economic recovery, with investors now turning to the next set of quarterly bank earnings and economic data to gauge the pace of a domestic rebound.

U.S. retail sales for June and weekly jobless claims, both due at 8:30 a.m. ET, are likely to show the economy continuing to limp out of a coronavirus-driven slump as several states eased lockdowns from May.

But a recent surge in domestic coronavirus cases have forced states such as California to shut down again, sparking fears of more economic damage and slowing the pace of a Wall Street rally.

Stock markets in Asia and Europe fell earlier in the day after data showed China’s retail sales fell 1.8% in June. Stocks in mainland China <.SSEC> sank 4.5%.

At home, Bank of America Corp shares edged lower after it reported a more than 50% decline in second-quarter profit, setting aside $4 billion for potential loan losses tied to the coronavirus pandemic.

Morgan Stanley is due to report quarterly results later in the day, wrapping up what has been a mixed bag of quarterly earnings updates from the top six U.S. lenders.

Johnson & Johnson was flat as it posted a 35.3% fall in quarterly profit as demand for its medical devices was hammered by hospitals putting off non-urgent procedures such as knee and hip replacement.

Diversified manufacturer Honeywell and medical device maker Abbott Laboratories are also slated to report their quarterly results on Thursday.

At 6:29 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis <1YMcv1> were down 179 points, or 0.67%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 23.75 points, or 0.74% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 150 points, or 1.4%.

Twitter Inc fell 6.6% in premarket trading as hackers accessed its internal systems to hijack some of the platform’s top voices including U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden, reality TV star Kim Kardashian West, former U.S. President Barack Obama and billionaire Elon Musk and used them to solicit digital currency.

Tesla Inc dropped 4.9% as its vehicle registrations nearly halved in the U.S. state of California during the second quarter, according to data from a marketing research firm.

(Reporting by Medha Singh and Devik Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)