Weekly jobless claims totaled 219,000 (Briefing.com consensus 217,000) and continuing claims totaled 1.869 million.
The Philadelphia Index dropped to 18.1 (Briefing.com consensus 20.5) in February from 44.3.
Equity futures were already lower ahead of the release. The S&P 500 futures are down 18 points and are trading 0.3% below fair value, the Nasdaq 100 futures are down 61 points and are trading 0.2% below fair value, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures are down 139 points and are trading 0.3% below fair value.