(By Salman - iStockAnalyst Writer)US stock futures rose on Thursday after a government release showed that initial claims dropped 4,000 to 621,00 in the week ending May 30.
At 8:30 am ET, Standard & Poor's 500 Index futures increased 2 points to 933.70. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 20 points to 8689. Nasdaq Composite Index futures retreated 0.75 points to 1476.75..
A release by Department of Labor on Thursday showed number of Americans filing first- time claims for unemployment benefits fell 4,000 to 621,00 in the week ending May 30. Economists expected jobless claims to drop to 620,000. The four-week average of seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims, a less volatile gauge, increased 4,000 to 631,250. Continuing claims for the week ending May 23 dropped 15,000 to 6.74 million.
Ciena Corp. (
NASDAQ: CIEN) said that it swung to fiscal second quarter loss of $503 million, or $5.53 a share compared to net income of $23.8 million, or 23 cents a share, in the year ago period. Revenue declined to $144.2 million from $242.2 million.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (
NYSE: WMT) on Thursday said that this year it intends to create more than 22,000 jobs in the US.
Early on Thursday, retailer
Costco Wholesale Corp. (
NASDAQ: COST) reported comparable-store sales fell 7% while total sales fell 5% to $5.47 billion in the month of May from $5.77 billion in the year-earlier month.
Macy's Inc. (
NYSE: M) said that its same store sales slipped 9.1% in May compared to the same period last year.
Target Corp. (
NYSE: TGT) said that its same-store sales declined 6.1% in May, worse than the consensus estimate of a decrease of 4.3%.
Meanwhile, chipmaker
Intel Corp. (
NASDAQ: INTC) announced on Thursday that it would acquire software vendor
Wind River Systems Inc. (
NASDAQ: WIND) for $11.50 a share in cash, or about $884 million.
On Wednesday, US stocks finished with losses on Wednesday as investors were spooked by a steep fall in crude oil prices.
European Central Bank policy makers on Thursday and the Bank of England Thursday left their key interest rates unchanged at 1% and 0.5% respectively.
European stocks were mixed in afternoon trade. At 12:56 pm London time, the UK FTSE fell 7.79 points or 0.18% to 4,375.63. The German DAX and French CAC increased 0.65% and 0.49% respectively.
Asian stocks finished lower. The Nikkei 225 fell 72.71 points or 0.75% to 9,668.96. The Hang Seng index of Hong Kong dropped 73.70 points or 0.40% to 18,502.77.
NYMEX crude oil for July delivery declined as much as $1.26 or 1.9% to $67.38 a barrel in electronic trading.
Disclosure: Author does not own any of the stocks discussed here.
