(By Salman - iStockAnalyst Writer)US stock futures pointed to a higher open on Thursday as better than expected weekly initial claims data buoyed investor sentiment.
At 8:27 am ET,
Standard & Poor's 500 Index futures rose 7.40 points to 881.10.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures advanced 42 points to 8158.
Nasdaq Composite Index futures climbed 8.75 points to 1415.75.
A release by
Department of Labor on Thursday showed number of Americans filing first- time claims for unemployment benefits fell 52,000 to 565,00 in the week ending July 4. Economists expected jobless claims to drop to 603,000. The four-week average of seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims, a less volatile gauge, decreased 10,000 to 606,000. Continuing claims for the week ending June 27 jumped 159,000 to a record 6.88 million.
Late on Wednesday,
Alcoa (
NYSE: AA) reported that second quarter loss totaled $454 million or 47 cents a share compared to profit of $546 million, or 66 cents a share in the year-ago period. Excluding restructuring charges, Alcoa's loss in the latest quarter would have been 26 cents per share. Revenue plunged 41% to $4.24 billion. Analysts on average expected the company to report a loss of 39 cents a share on revenue of $4.3 billion.
Early on Thursday,
Costco Wholesale Corp. (
NASDAQ: COST), reported that for June, same-store sales declined 6%, matching the analyst estimates.
Target Corp. (
NYSE: TGT) said Thursday that its June same-store sales fell 6.2%.
Macy's Inc. (
NYSE: M) announced that June same-store sales fell 8.9%.
Meanwhile,
Data Domain Inc. (
NASDAQ: DDUP) agreed to be acquired by
EMC Corp. (
NYSE: EMC) for $2.1 billion, or $33.50 a share, and said that it has paid
NetApp (
NASDAQ: NTAP) a $57 million termination fee.
Elsewhere, the
Bank of England on Thursday kept its key lending rate unchanged at a record low of 0.5%.
On the economic front,
wholesale inventories data is due for release at 10:00 am ET.
Wall Street trimmed most of its earlier losses to finish flat on Wednesday as investors braced for the latest round of quarterly earnings from the corporate sector.
European stocks advanced in afternoon trade. At 13:24 pm London time, the UK FTSE climbed 29.08 points or 0.70% to 4,169.31. The German DAX and French CAC gained 1.36% and 0.90%.
Asian stocks finished mixed. The Nikkei 225 slipped 129.69 points or 1.38% to 9,291.06. The Hang Seng index of Hong Kong rose 69.52 points or 0.39% to end at 17,790.59.
NYMEX crude oil for August delivery climbed as much as $1.33 or 2.2% to $61.47 a barrel in electronic trading.
Disclosure: Author doesn’t own any of the stocks mentioned here.
