Personal income due at 8:30 Eastern time; Chicago PMI, UMich later By Barbara Kollmeyer, MarketWatch MADRID (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock futures pointed to losses for Wall Street on Friday ahead of a clutch of economic data, as a rough third quarter drew to a close. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJ1Z -0.91% fell 124 points to 10,975 and those on the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index SP1Z -1.10% dropped 14 points to 1,142.50. Nasdaq 100 futures ND1Z -0.73% fell 21 points to 2,168.50. Global markets also fell, with Europe’s Stoxx 600 index XX:SXXP -1.29% off 1.7% as worries about weaker global growth hit car makers like BMW AG DE:BMW -6.99% and luxury-goods groups. European sovereign debt worries remained in the background. The Hang Seng index closed down 2.3%. HSBC’s China Purchasing Managers Index showed the manufacturing sector contracted in September for a third straight month, as domestic and overseas demand remained weak. Read China September PMI points to flat activity Preliminary data showed the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA +1.30% lost 10.15% in the third quarter, the biggest quarterly percentage drop since the first quarter of 2009, and the first down quarter since the second quarter of 2010. “It certainly was a horrific quarter for stock markets. The only market that escaped any major declines or held steady was the bond market,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital. Cardillo said markets will focus on U.S. economic data, but “basically there‘s no way we can escape a closing with major losses and still lots of volatility.” Economic data due Friday include U.S. personal income for August at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time, the Chicago purchasing managers index for September due at 9:45 a.m. Eastern and the University of Michigan consumer confidence survey for September at 9:55 a.m. Eastern. Wall Street finished a choppy session mostly higher on Thursday, with the Dow DJIA +1.30% closing up 143.08 points, or 1.3%, to 11,153.98. However, shares of higher-end retail-goods companies such as Tiffany & Co. TIF -6.89% stumbled on fears of a hard landing in China. On the corporate front, shares of Orion Marine Group Inc. ORN -18.14% plunged 18% in preopen trade after the firm said late Thursday that its end market has been experiencing difficulties throughout the year, and it sees margins staying under pressure for “the foreseeable future.” U.S.-listed shares of China-based electric-motors manufacturer Harbin Electric Inc. HRBN +8.49% rose over 8% in premarket trading. The company has scheduled an Oct. 29 special shareholders meeting to vote on a $24-a-share cash offer previously announced from Tech Full Electric to take the Chinese company private. McGraw-Hill Cos. MHP -1.83% is in advanced talks to combine its S&P Indices business with CME Group Inc.’s CME +1.12% Dow Jones Indexes, according to a report published in The Wall Street Journal’s online edition late Thursday. CME owns 90% of Dow Jones Indexes through a joint venture with Dow Jones & Co. CME would have a minority stake of about 25%, while Dow Jones could have a minimal stake under the deal. Dow Jones is a unit of News Corp. NWSA +0.09% , which owns MarketWatch, the publisher of this report. Meanwhile, Invesco Ltd. IVZ +3.98% said late Thursday that a pair of subsidiaries, together with Square Mile Capital Management LLC and the Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds, have agreed to buy a portfolio of performing and non-performing loans from Bank of America Corp. BAC -1.26% . Micron Technology Inc. MU -8.18% could come under pressure after the firm unexpectedly swung to a fiscal fourth-quarter net loss of $135 million, or 14 cents a share. That news weighed on U.K. chip designer ARM Holdings PLC ARMH -0.95% UK:ARM -2.62% , shares of which dropped in London. Level 3 Communications Inc. LVLT +4.64% and Global Crossing Ltd. GLBC +1.96% said late Thursday that both the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Justice Department have signed off on Level 3’s buy of Global Crossing. Among commodities, gold futures for December delivery rose $5 to $1,621.80 an ounce, while crude-oil futures for November delivery fell 63 cents to $81.49 a barrel. The dollar index DXY +0.54% , which measures the U.S. unit against a basket of six major currencies, rose to 78.390 from 77.917 late Thursday.

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