European shares continued to drift lower on Thursday, with investors reticent about lifting their exposure to riskier assets given uncertainty over the next moves by the U.S. Federal Reserve and the outlook for the global economy. .EU.

Japan's Nikkei average fell below 9,000 to a two-week closing low on Thursday as hopes that U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will signal more stimulus in his speech on Friday faded, while resources-related shares slid on a weaker outlook. .T.

Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan promised on Wednesday that he and Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney would make the tough choices needed to lead a U.S. economic turnaround that generates jobs and cuts government spending and debt.

Drenching rains from Hurricane Isaac brought flooding to the U.S. Gulf Coast on Wednesday, but elaborate defenses built to protect New Orleans after it was devastated by Hurricane Katrina seven years ago seemed to pass their first major test.

Data on Wednesday showed that the U.S. economy fared slightly better than initially thought in the second quarter, but the pace of growth remained too slow to shut the door on further monetary easing from the Federal Reserve.

U.S. jobless claims data is due out at 1230 GMT on Thursday. A Reuters poll forecasts the initial jobless claims data as coming in at 370,000, down from 372,000 before.

CITIGROUP (C.N): Citigroup Inc agreed to pay $590 million to settle a shareholder lawsuit accusing it of hiding tens of billions of dollars of toxic mortgage assets, one of the largest settlements stemming from the global financial crisis.

JOHNSON & JOHNSON (JNJ.N): Genmab (GEN.CO) has agreed a deal that could be worth over $1.1 billion with a unit of Johnson & Johnson for the rights to a cancer agent, giving the U.S. company a 10.7 percent equity stake in the Danish biotech group.

APPLE (AAPL.O): Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) became the first handset maker to announce a smartphone using Microsoft's (MSFT.O) latest mobile software, making its surprise, hurried announcement just days before the highly anticipated launch of Nokia's (NOK1V.HE) version.

On Wednesday, the Dow Jones industrial average .DJI inched up 4.49 points, or 0.03 percent, to 13,107.48. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX rose 1.19 points, or 0.08 percent, to 1,410.49. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC gained 4.04 points, or 0.13 percent, to 3,081.19. (Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta. Editing by Jeremy Gaunt.)

• A Permanent Economic Emergency