Wall Street stock futures trade lower

Wall Street stock futures on Thursday were tilting lower as investors considered the prospect of stimulus withdrawal from Federal Reserve by as early as January.

Dow Jones industrial average index futures slid 0.3%, Standard & Poor's 500 index futures lost 0.3% and Nasdaq index futures were down 0.5%.

In its latest policy statement, the Fed said it will continue buying $85 billion in bonds every month and keep its benchmark short-term interest rate near zero.

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On Wednesday, the Dow lost 0.4% to 15,618.76. The S&P 500 index fell 0.5% to 1,763.31. The Nasdaq shed 0.5% to 3,930.62.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell over 1% to 14,327.94 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was off 0.4% to 23,206.37.

The major regional bourses in Europe traded with losses. The United Kingdom's FTSE 100 index was down 0.4%.

In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude for December delivery was up 2 cents at $96.79 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.43 to close at $96.77 on Wednesday.

While the Fed's announcement was mostly expected by investors, its comments that there was "underlying strength in the broader economy" spooked markets and raised fears that tapering could be brought forward three to four months, said Evan Lucas, market strategist with IG in Melbourne, Australia.

Facebook's shares (FB) are likely to be in focus among individual stocks Thursday. On Wednesday, the firm's corporate results blew past estimates. Facebook shares were up over 4% in pre-market trades.

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Contributing: Associated Press