Stock Futures Fall After China Data

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures fell on Thursday after soft Chinese manufacturing data and a day after Moody's warned of a potential downgrade for Spain and Wall Street ended its worst quarter since the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

Global equities markets were pressured after Chinese data showed moderation in the world's third-largest economy, but no precipitous drop that some investors feared.

Spain sold 3.5 billion euros of five-year bonds at the top end of its target amount but demand was below the prior auction as Moody's placed Spain on review for a potential downgrade on Wednesday.

In U.S. economic data, weekly jobless claims were set for 8:30 a.m. EDT, while U.S. pending home sales for May and the Institute for Supply Management's June manufacturing index were due at 10:00 a.m. EDT.

Economists in a Reuters survey expected jobless claims to fall to 452,000 from 457,000 in the previous week. U.S. pending home sales were seen declining 12.5 percent from a 6 percent rise. The ISM manufacturing index was forecast a reading of 59.0 versus 59.7 in May.

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