06:52 AM EDT, 04/25/2024 (MT Newswires) -- The benchmark US stock measures were tracking in the red before Thursday's open, as traders await another slew of corporate earnings and key economic data.

Standard & Poor's 500 futures declined 0.6%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average decreased 0.4% and the Nasdaq dropped 0.9% in the premarket. Asian exchanges were mixed to lower, while European bourses were mostly heading south.

Meta Platforms (META) fell 14% pre-bell after the Facebook parent projected higher capital spending this year than previously expected, while reporting first-quarter results above market estimates. International Business Machines (IBM) slipped nearly 9% as the tech giant agreed to acquire multi-cloud infrastructure automation company HashiCorp (HCP) for $6.4 billion.

Merck & Co. (MRK), Caterpillar (CAT), Comcast (CMCSA), Union Pacific (UNP) S&P Global (SPGI), Honeywell International (HON), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP), Newmont (NEM), Dow (DOW) and American Airlines (AAL) are scheduled to release their latest financials before the bell, among others.

Big-tech companies Microsoft (MSFT) and Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) post quarterly earnings after the markets close, alongside wireless carrier T-Mobile US (TMUS) and chipmaker Intel (INTC).

On the economic calendar, the initial fourth-quarter gross domestic product estimate is out at 8:30 am ET, along with the international trade in goods, retail inventories and wholesale inventories report for March. The weekly jobless claims bulletin also posts at 8:30 am.

The National Association of Realtors pending home sales index for last month is due at 10 am, followed by the weekly EIA domestic natural-gas supplies report at 10:30 am. The Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Index for April is slated for an 11 am release.

Before the opening bell, bitcoin declined 1.2% to $63,474, West Texas Intermediate crude edged up less than 0.1% to $82.84 a barrel, yields on 10-year Treasuries dipped 1.2 basis points to 4.64% and gold was slightly in the red at $2,338 an ounce.