9:30AM NY – 3:00PM London FTSE 100 lower as weak metals hit the market.
The FTSE 100 in London slipped 0.62% to 6,280 in mid-afternoon session.

Economic news

The service sector in the UK grew at its fastest pace in almost a decade last month, while companies are displaying increasing optimism about the coming year, a survey released on Thursday showed.

Decliners

Kazakhmys, Vedanta and Antofagasta were firmly in negative territory impacted the overall market trend negatively, down 4.69%, 4.40% and 4.10% respectively. Xstrata fell worst, down 5.30% as falling copper prices weighed on the miners.

Oil prices declined 4% on Wednesday to below $59 a barrel due to milder than usual weather in North America, with the conditions set to continue well into next week. BP, Shell and Cairn Energy fell, 0.97%, 1.71% and 4.56% respectively.

Dutch bank ABN Amro downgraded British Gas owner Centrica to hold from buy and reduced its earnings estimates for 2008-09 by 8% and 6% respectively on valuation grounds.

St James'' Park Group, a consortium backed by Polygon Global Opportunities Master Fund, has pulled back of bid talks with English Premiership football club Newcastle United, bringing shares of the soccer club down 8.07%.

Advancers

Online electronic trading platform business FastFill announced that it has received an approach regarding a possible offer for the company, which supported a 13.73% surge in the shares of the company.

In the wake of the sale of Dolcis, clothes and shoes retailer Alexon saw same-store sales for the rest of the group for the 22 weeks ended 30 December decline 4% compared with the previous year. The shares of the company advanced 3.73%.


9:00AM Market futures declined on rate worries and disappointing retail sales.
U.S. stock futures pointed to a negative market opening on continuous concerns that the Fed Reserve may not cut interest rates in the short term. Market also digested December retail sales which turned out to be lower than previously expected. On the economic news front, the Labor Department reported that 329,000 newly unemployed workers filed applications for jobless benefits, an increase of 10,000 from the previous week, marking the highest level since late November. Thursday''s economic agenda also includes the Institute of Supply Management''s non-manufacturing index for December, weekly energy supplies statistics, as well as November factory orders.

Among companies releasing quarterly results, Monsanto Co. (MON: chart), agricultural products maker, said its Q1 earnings surged 53% to 16 cents a share, up from 11 cents last year on strong sales, The company said it sees full-year results at the top end of its previous guidance. The stock fell 2.5% in pre-market trading, as the top end of its guidance range was still below analysts'' expectations. In corporate news, Cisco Systems (CIS: chart) said it agreed to buy privately held IronPort Systems for $830 million. S&P 500 futures shed 2.80 points to 1,422.00 and Nasdaq 100 futures declined 5.50 points to 1,773.50. Dow industrial futures dropped 24 points to 12,506.

Initial jobless claims rose more than expected.
Thursday morning, the Department of Labor released its report on initial jobless claims in the week ended December 30, showing that jobless claims increased by much more than economists had been expecting. The report showed that jobless claims rose to 329,000 from the previous week''s revised figure of 319,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to edge up to 320,000 from the 317,000 originally reported for the previous week. The Labor Department also said that the less volatile 4-week moving average rose to 317,500 from the previous week''s revised average of 316,250. The report also showed that continuing claims in the week ended December 23 fell to 2.446 million from the preceding week''s revised level of 2.522 million. The data may shed some light on the monthly employment report that is due to be released on Friday. Economists currently expect the report to show that U.S. economy added around 115,000 jobs in December, while the unemployment rate is expected to remain at 4.5 percent.


8:00AM Retailers reported weaker-than-expected December same-store sales.
Retail companies will be in the spotlight on Thursday, due to the release of December same-store sales. Rainstorms and warmer winter weather are expected to have negatively influenced retailers’ holiday sales. The increasing popularity of gift cards and robust online shopping, which is not included in same-store results, are also considered to have hurt sales. The International Council of Shopping Centers is projecting that December same-store sales will rise at the low end of its 2.5% to 3.5% forecast.

Following Wal-Mart’s (WMT: chart) report of better-than-expected same-store sales, Costco Wholesale and American Eagle Outfitters posted surprisingly strong data. Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST: chart) said that December same-store sales rose 9%, higher than the projected 5.7% increase. Total sales rose 14% to $7.24 billion from $6.37 billion a year earlier. Costco stated that the current reporting period included 34 selling days vs. 33 a year earlier, providing a 3% boost to the latest data. J.C. Penney Corp. (JCP: chart) also reported positive results, saying December sales at department stores open at least a year rose 2.6%, slightly higher than estimates of 2.4% growth. Total department store sales rose 4.2% to $2.96 billion.

Among retailers releasing disappointing results, Bebe Stores Inc. (BEBE: chart) reported a 4% increase in sales at stores open at least a year, missing analyst estimates of an increase by 6.3%. Total retail sales for the five weeks ended Dec. 30 climbed 13.5% to $95.6 million. The apparel retailer cut its Q2 earnings forecast, due to lower-than-expected sales and higher-than-planned markdowns. Limited Brands Inc. (LTD: chart) posted a 4% advance by its December same-store sales, coming in below expectations of a gain by 9.3%. Net sales for the period rose 6% to $2.03 billion. Likewise, Federated Department Stores Inc. (FD: chart) said sales rose 4.4%, below expectations of a 5.5% rise.