Stock futures point to mixed open on Wall Street
Stock futures are little changed ahead of the opening bell, though Citigroup is being punished by shareholders after the Federal Reserve shot down its plan to pay out more dividends.
The market's losses this week have left the Standard & Poor's 500 index flat for the year.
KEEPING SCORE: Dow Jones industrial average futures are up eight points, or 0.1 percent, to 16,189. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures are down a point, less than 0.1 percent, to 1,844. Nasdaq futures are flat at 3,573.
REJECTED: Shares of Citigroup slumped 6 percent in premarket trading Thursday after the Federal Reserve rejected the bank's capital plan, saying it had failed its "stress test." The Fed's action stops the bank from raising its dividend payout to shareholders, or buying back more of its own stock. That marks the second time in three years that the bank has failed the test. The bank brought in CEO Michael Corbat in 2012, the last time the Fed rejected Citigroup's capital plan, with the mandate of speeding up the bank's turnaround.
ECONOMY WATCH: The government said Thursday that the U.S. economy expanded at a 2.6 percent pace between October and December, slightly better than previously estimated, as consumer spending rose at the fastest pace in three years. In a separate report, the government said the number of people seeking U.S. unemployment benefits fell 10,000 last week to 311,000, the lowest figure since late November.
EUROPE: Major markets in Europe are drifting lower. Germany's DAX fell 0.3 percent. France's CAC 40 also slipped 0.3 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.6 percent.
ASIA: Japan's Nikkei gained 1 percent while Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.2 percent. On mainland China, the Shanghai Composite fell 0.8 percent.
OTHER MARKETS: The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.70 percent from 2.69 percent late Wednesday. The price of crude oil is up 70 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $100.96 a barrel. Gold is down $9.80, or 0.7 percent, to $1,293.60 an ounce.
