This week has brought declines to Wall Street, and indications suggested some more declines were in store for stock investors on Thursday morning. Moves lower in stock index futures were quite small but nevertheless failed to provide a bounce after two days of falling prices.

One concern investors have had is that prolonged high interest rates could cause the economy to fall into a recession. So far, signs of a slowdown have been somewhat ambiguous, with various sectors of the economy holding up better than others. Today's news from Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and Darden Restaurants (NYSE: DRI) provided some more information that investors can use to determine the near-term likelihood of more difficult macroeconomic conditions ahead. Here's what these two companies had to say about their respective businesses and what lies ahead.

Shares of Accenture were down nearly 5% in premarket trading Thursday morning. The consulting company has expected to get a bump in client interest in artificial intelligence (AI), but its fiscal third-quarter financial report for the period ended May 31 included some forecasts that suggested a possible slowdown in future business.

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Source Fool.com