Stock index futures signal early losses

PARIS -

Stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street on Monday, with futures for the S&P 500 down 0.43 percent, Dow Jones futures down 0.34 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.47 percent at 4.33 a.m. EDT.

European shares were down around 1 percent in morning trade, with oil and gold also retreating as worries over the global economic outlook and its impact on the coming corporate earnings season weighed on investor sentiment and eclipsed Friday's surprise drop in U.S. unemployment rate.

The World Bank cut its estimate for East Asian growth including for China, and this has undone some of the positive sentiment that followed Friday's sharp drop in U.S. unemployment for September.

China's top telecoms gear makers should be shut out of the U.S. market as potential Chinese state influence on them poses a security threat, the U.S. House of Representatives' Intelligence Committee said in a draft of a report to be released on Monday.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc and American Express will hold a conference call on Monday to make a financial services announcement, the two companies said in a statement on Sunday.

General Motors Co and its China joint ventures sold 244,266 v vehicles in the country in September, up 1.7 percent from a year earlier, the U.S. automaker said on Monday.

Trading volumes on Wall Street were expected to be muted on Monday because of the Columbus Day holiday, with U.S. bond markets closed.

The S&P 500 broke a four-day string of gains, ending slightly lower on Friday as an unexpected drop in the U.S. unemployment rate was overshadowed by concerns about the coming earnings season, which begins with Alcoa next week.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> rose 34.79 points, or 0.26 percent, to 13,610.15 at the close. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> dipped just 0.47 of a point, or 0.03 percent, to 1,460.93. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> slipped 13.27 points, or 0.42 percent, to end at 3,136.19.

(Reporting by Blaise Robinson/ Editing by Chris Pizzey)