Wall Street futures pointed to a mild rebound Thursday after the previous day’s rout and plunging markets in Europe and Asia.

In U.S. economic news, consumer prices were flat in September, a sign that falling energy prices and the economic downturn are rapidly easing pressure on inflation.

Economists were expecting the U.S. Consumer Price Index to rise 0.1% after a 0.1% slide in August.

Separately, U.S. initial claims for jobless benefits fell 16,000 on a seasonally-adjusted basis to 461,000 in the week ended Oct. 11. Economists surveyed had expected claims would fall by 13,000.

Here at home, manufacturing sales decreased 3.7% in August following four consecutive monthly increases, Statistics Canada reported.

The Canadian dollar opened at 84.44¢, up 0.26 cent from Wednesday.

In commodities news, the near-month crude oil contract was down US$1.40 at US$73.14 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Gold declined US$4.70 to US$834.30 an ounce.

In today’s earnings news, Merrill Lynch & Co. reported a third-quarter loss of US$5.2 billion versus a loss of US$2.24 billion for the same period a year ago.

Citigroup reported a US$2.8 billion net loss for the third quarter, reflecting US$4.9 billion in credit losses and a $3.9 billion boost to its loan-loss reserves.

Google, International Business Machines, United Technologies and Hershey are also due to report.

Overseas, the Japanese Nikkei fell 1,089.02 points, or 11.4%, to 8,458.45 was its worst daily performance since 1987.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index closed down 4.8% after losing more than 8% earlier in the session.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index was down 3% early in the afternoon in London despite new action by the Bank of England to free up lending. Germany’s DAX was down 2% and the French CAC-40 lost 3.3%.

On Wednesday, North American stocks fell sharply Wednesday as optimism over government moves to stabilize the financial system was elbowed aside by the prospect of a global recession.

Markets, which had opened lower, plunged after U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the U.S. economy won’t bounce back quickly even if confidence in the financial system returns and jittery markets finally calm down.

Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite index, coming off a one-day record gain of 890 points, tumbled 631.83 points, or 6.35%, to end at 9,323.85.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index fell 63.49 points, or 6.02%, to end at 991.21.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 733.08 points, or 7.87%, to finish at 8,577.91. The S&P 500 lost 90.17 points, or 9.03%, to end at 907.84, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 150.68 points, or 8.84%, to 1,628.33.

IE