China data disappoints; Facebook's outage; Boeing recovers

The Shanghai Composite closed down 1.2% after official statistics showed output from China's huge industrial sector grew by just 5.3% in January and February, the weakest rate of growth in 17 years.

The Chinese economy has struggled in recent months amid a damaging trade war with the United States and a government crackdown on lending.

Other metrics like exports have also fallen recently, and China is taking steps to ensure the slowdown is not too sharp. The Chinese government slashed business taxes earlier this month after warning that its economy would grow between 6% and 6.5% in 2019 — the slowest in more than three decades.

Other major Asian markets like Hong Kong's Hang Seng index and Japan's Nikkei were flat on Thursday, while European markets posted modest gains. US stock futures were edging higher.

2. Facebook's big outage: Facebook (FB) and its various platforms continued to face some outages on Thursday, with the issues stretching beyond 14 hours — believed to be the social network's biggest-ever interruption.

Some users of Facebook and other platforms owned by the tech giant — including Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp — reported intermittent problems accessing the services and posting content.

The problems began Wednesday afternoon, forcing Facebook to use Twitter (TWTR) to provide an explanation.

At 12:41 a.m. ET Thursday, Instagram posted a tweet that said, "Anddddd... we're back" with a gif of Oprah Winfrey. Users in Asia and Europe still appeared to be having issues with Facebook on Thursday morning.

The lengthy disruption is likely to upset advertisers that spend large amounts of money to reach potential customers on Facebook platforms. The company's flagship social network has more than 2.3 billion users, and Instagram has more than 1 billion.

Facebook stock fell more than 1% premarket.

3. Boeing bounces back: The plane maker's stock staged a late recovery on Wednesday, ending the day 0.5% higher even after the United States became the latest country to ground its 737 Max jets.

Boeing (BA) shares fell 3% in afternoon trading after President Donald Trump announced the US ban on the 737 Max 8 and Max 9, but recouped their losses later in the day. The stock was little changed premarket on Thursday.

Several other countries including Canada, China and the United Kingdom have grounded the jets, after one flown by Ethiopian airlines crashed earlier this week. It's the second crash in less than six months involving the 737 Max 8.

Despite Wednesday's recovery, Boeing's stock has fallen 10% since the crash, wiping more than $25 billion off the company's market value.

Grounding all 737 Max planes could cost Boeing up to $5 billion over three months, according to estimates from Wall Street firms Melius Research and Jefferies.

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4. Earnings and economics: Dollar General (DG) plans to release earnings before the open Thursday. Meanwhile, Adobe Systems (ADBE) and Oracle (ORCL) are set to release earnings after the close.

Etihad, Abu Dhabi's global airline, posted a loss of $1.28 billion for 2018, its third consecutive annual loss. Germany's Lufthansa (DLAKY) posted a slight fall in annual profit and said it would reduce growth in peak summer capacity.

The Census Bureau plans to release its January New Home Sales report at 10 a.m. ET.

5. Coming this week:
Thursday — Dollar General (DG) earnings; New US home sales report; Tesla holds Model Y event
Friday — US industrial production and US consumer confidence report

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