(By Balachander) U.S. stock index futures pointed to a lower open on the Wall Street as investors weighed mixed quarterly earnings reports and jump in weekly jobless claims.
Mini Dow Industrial Average futures shed 9 points to 13,480. The Nasdaq futures slipped 10 points to 2,760.50. Standard and Poor's 500 futures dipped 4.20 points to 1,452.90.
The number of Americans who continued to receive jobless benefits jumped last week, a government data showed. Jobless claims increased 46,000 to 388,000 for the week ended October 13 from a revised 342,000, also coming in higher than projections of 365,000 applications.
The Conference Board is due to release leading economic indicators for September at 10 am ET, with expectations of an increase of 0.2 percent after a decline of 0.1 percent in August. Another report may show the Philadelphia Federal Reserve index of business confidence improved in October.
On Wednesday, U.S. stocks closed on a modestly higher note as investors digested weak quarterly results and guidance from several companies, including International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) and Intel (INTC).
Hot Stocks Of The Day: MS, EBAY, CLWR, SYK, TRV, SVU, MLNX, SCSS, WCC
In corporate news, Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) added 2.00 percent in premarket after the New York-based financial services giant posted its quarterly results, including a rise in investment banking revenue.
Clearwire Corp. (NASDAQ: CLWR) retreated 9.73 percent in premarket after Sprint Nextel Corp (NYSE: S) disclosed it has acquired voting control of the company.
eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY), an online auction site, reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings, boosted by strong performance of its PayPal and marketplaces businesses. The company also raised its forecast for 2012.
Stryker Corp. (NYSE: SYK) lost 1.74 percent in premarket after the medical technology company's earnings for the third quarter missed market expectations.
Travelers Companies Inc. (NYSE: TRV) reported a surge in quarterly earnings, helped by lower catastrophe losses and higher underlying underwriting results.
SUPERVALU INC. (NYSE: SVU) jumped 10.78 percent following its quarterly results, with sales coming in better than expected.
Mellanox Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: MLNX) tumbled 14.62 percent in premarket after the fabless semiconductor company issued a downbeat fourth-quarter revenue forecast.
Wesco International Inc. (NYSE: WCC) surged 11.07 percent after the distributor of electrical products posted better-than-expected quarterly results and said it has agreed to acquire Canada-based rival Eecol Electric Corp. for about C$1.14 billion.
Select Comfort Corp. (NASDAQ: SCSS) shed 5.46 percent after the bed manufacturer reported its quarterly results.
Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) are due to post their quarterly results after the market closes.
Global Markets:
European markets traded mixed, with Germany's DAX up 0.45 percent to trade at 7,428.17. France's CAC40 dipped 0.20 percent to trade at 3,520.60. U.K.'s FTSE 100 shed 0.09 percent to trade at 5,905.60.
Among Asian markets, China's Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index added 1.24 percent to end at 2,131.69. Japan's Nikkei 225 jumped 2.00 percent to finish at 8,982.86. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 0.48 percent to close at 21,518.71. India's BSE Sensex finished at 18,791.93, up 0.97 percent.
Commodity & Currency Scan:
Ahead of the opening bell, crude oil futures slid 0.16 percent to $91.97 per barrel. Gold futures dropped 0.54 percent to $1,743.5 per ounce.
In the currency market, the euro fell 0.14 percent against the U.S. dollar to 1.3100. The British pound slipped 0.06 percent against the greenback to 1.6140, while the dollar added 0.37 percent against the Japanese yen to 79.2600.