U.S. futures fall ahead of data; Dow Jones down 0.32%

Investing.com - U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower open on Friday, as sentiment was weighed by ongoing concerns over the handling of Greece's debt woes and U.S. fiscal policy.

Ahead of the open, the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures pointed to a 0.32% decline, S&P 500 futures signaled a 0.28% fall, while the Nasdaq 100 futures indicated a 0.11% loss.

Concerns over Greece re-emerged after German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble on Thursday said next week may still be too early to make a decision on granting further aid to Athens, despite a successful vote on new austerity measures.

European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi praised Greece for going ahead with austerity reforms, but he said the ECB was "by and large done" with helping finance Greece.

Meanwhile, investors remained cautious amid concerns over the U.S. fiscal cliff, automatic tax hikes and spending cuts due to come into effect on January 1 unless lawmakers can reach an agreement, which could threaten U.S. and global growth.

The Internet sector was expected to be active, after Groupon's results again fell short of expectations as the daily deal company failed to turn around a struggling European business, sending its shares to a record low. The news sent shares plunging 14.80% in pre-market trade.

Meanwhile, Netflix saw shares climb 0.47% after hours, when activist investor Carl Icahn said he has considered a hostile takeover bid for the Internet streaming service but was uncertain he stood a chance of acquiring the company in which he holds a 10% stake.

The financial sector was also likely to be in focus, after Merrill Lynch, part of Bank of America, on Thursday lost its bid to dismiss a federal regulator's lawsuit accusing it of misleading Fannie Mae and Freddie Macinto buying billions of dollars of risky mortgage debt.

In tech stocks, Nvidia added 0.32% in after-hour trade, even as it forecast revenue below expectations due to a slowdown in tablet-processor shipments and a troubled PC market.

Elsewhere, Boeing reported it has bagged more than 1,000 net new orders so far this year, putting the U.S. planemaker on course to sell more aircraft than European rival Airbus for the first time since 2006.

Other stocks in focus included J.C. Penney, due to report earnings before the start of the U.S. trading session.

Across the Atlantic, European stock markets were lower. The EURO STOXX 50 dropped 0.69%, France’s CAC 40 fell 0.26%, Germany's DAX tumbled 1.01%, while Britain's FTSE 100 retreated 0.47%.

During the Asian trading session, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index declined 0.85%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index tumbled 0.9%.

Later in the day, the U.S. was to produce preliminary data from the University of Michigan on consumer sentiment.