Futures slide on Wal-Mart, Cisco woes

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures fell on Thursday after Wal-Mart Stores Inc reported disappointing January sales and technology bellwether Cisco Systems Inc warned of slowing orders, adding to recession fears.

Shares of Wal-Mart, a Dow component, dropped 3 percent to $47.39 before the bell. The world's largest retailer posted January sales from stores open at least a year below Wall Street's estimates.

The one-two punch from Wal-Mart and Cisco came a day after the Nasdaq composite index descended into bear market territory as tech shares pulled Wall Street to a third straight day of losses.

"There's fear in the market," said Peter Cardillo, market economist at Avalon Partners in New York. "The economy is slowing and that raises questions about capital expenditures and earnings going forward."

Shares of Cisco, a network equipment maker, were down 8.4 percent at $21.14 before the bell and dragged down other tech heavyweights, including Oracle Corp and Apple Inc .

S&P 500 futures dropped 13.5 points and were below fair value, a mathematical formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract.

Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 110 points. Nasdaq 100 futures declined 31.50 points.

Economic indicators set for release include weekly initial jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. EST and December pending home sales at 10 a.m. EST.

U.S. stock indexes dropped on Wednesday after Federal Reserve officials cast doubt on the outlook for more interest rate cuts.

(Editing by Kenneth Barry)