US equity futures were down ahead of Thursday's opening bell as traders monitored the latest developments in the Middle East.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were 0.8% lower, S&P 500 futures were down 0.9%, and Nasdaq futures were 1.1% lower.

On Wednesday, Iran rejected Washington's proposal to pause the war in the Middle East, with Tehran's top diplomat saying his country's government has not engaged in talks to end the conflict and does not intend to enter any negotiations, according to media reports.

Oil prices were higher, with front-month global benchmark North Sea Brent crude up 4.9% at $102.03 per barrel and US West Texas Intermediate crude 4.5% higher at $94.38 per barrel.

The weekly jobless claims bulletin, released at 8:30 am ET, showed an increase to 210,000 in the week ended March 21 from 205,000 in the prior week, in line with estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

In other world markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 0.3% lower, Hong Kong's Hang Seng ended 1.9% lower, and China's Shanghai Composite finished 1.1% lower. Meanwhile, the UK's FTSE 100 was down 1.3%, and Germany's DAX index was 1.5% lower in Europe's early afternoon session.

In equities, Kodiak Sciences (KOD) shares were 50% higher after the company said that topline results from a phase 3 trial of tarcocimab tedromer demonstrated superiority over sham in patients with diabetic retinopathy and met its primary endpoint with high statistical significance. Navan (NAVN) stock was up 19%, a day after the company reported it swung to fiscal Q4 earnings amid higher revenue.

On the losing side, MillerKnoll (MLKN) shares were 20% lower, a day after the company reported lower fiscal Q3 earnings.