Morning Briefing: 10 Things You Should Know

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- U.S. stock futures were signaling a flat open for Wall Street on Thursday after stocks suffered one of their worst days of 2012 amid fiscal cliff concerns.

However, the Greek Parliament's backing of another round of austerity measures has given a lift to European stocks early Thursday.

Both the European Central Bank and Bank of England hold meetings Thursday at which they're expected to hold interest rates steady. ECB President Mario Draghi is scheduled to hold a new conference at 8:30 a.m. EST.

Asian shares followed their U.S. counterparts lower on Thursday. Japan's Nikkei 225 index lost 1.5% to close at 8,837.15.

The economic calendar in the U.S. Thursday includes weekly initial and continuing jobless claims at 8:30 a.m., and trade balance data for September, also at 8:30 a.m.

U.S. stocks on Wednesday plunged as worries about the fiscal cliff rattled investors in the wake of Tuesday's re-election of President Barack Obama, the Republicans maintained control of the House and the Democrats kept the upper hand in the Senate.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 313 points, or 2.36%, to close at 12,933. It was the blue-chip index's first close below 13,000 since Aug. 2.

The lack of a shift in the political landscape raised fears that it will be difficult to get Democrats and Republicans to cooperate and act decisively to address the looming expiration of certain tax cuts and other legislative measures.

Walt Disney(DIS) is slated to report its fiscal fourth-quarter results after Thursday's closing bell and analysts are calling for earnings of 68 cents a share in the September-ended period on revenue of $10.92 billion.

Groupon(GRPN) , the online deals company, is forecast by analysts Thursday to post a profit of 3 cents a share in the third quarter on revenue of $590.1 million.