LONDON (Reuters) - Stock index futures pointed to a mixed open on Wall Street on Friday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.3 percent, while Dow Jones and Nasdaq 100 futures were broadly flat at 0956 GMT.
Overnight equity market performance has been mixed, with Tokyo shares edging higher <.n225>, while European bourses were hit by economic growth concerns <.fteu3>.
China's factory growth cooled to multi-month lows in February as domestic demand dipped, weighing on firms already hit by slack foreign sales and underlining the patchiness of the country's economic recovery.
Euro zone manufacturing activity appeared no closer to recovery last month, when a dire performance in France offset a return to growth in Germany, PMI data showed. British manufacturing, meanwhile, shrank unexpectedly.
Absent a highly unlikely last-ditch deal, the $85 billion in cuts across federal government agencies start on Friday after the White House and Republicans failed to reach a deal. The measures are expected to shave at least 0.5 percent off U.S. economic growth.
Groupon Inc
Boeing Co
U.S. government-run mortgage finance provider Freddie Mac
Bank of America Corp BAC.N said in a securities filing on Thursday that the New York State Attorney General was investigating the bank over its purchase, securitization and underwriting of home loans.
Gap Inc's
Salesforce.com Inc
Paulson & Co, the largest shareholder of MetroPCS Communications Inc
Best Buy Co
Friday's bumper data calendar features PCE inflation data for January alongside the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan sentiment index and the Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing index for February.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> fell 20.88 points, or 0.15 percent, to 14,054.49 on Thursday. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> lost 1.31 points, or 0.09 percent, to 1,514.68. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> fell 2.07 points, or 0.07 percent, to end at 3,160.19.
(Reporting by Francesco Canepa and Toni Vorobyova; Editing by Catherine Evans)
Stock index futures signal mixed start to March
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Stock index futures signal mixed start to March
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Stock index futures signal mixed start to March