Stock Futures Point to Higher Start
U.S. stocks futures edged higher on Thursday, taking a cue from European equities, as the market volatility receded after tumultuous trading in the previous session caused by some disappointing earnings results from blue chip companies while jump in gold prices also instilled some confidence.
At last check, futures on Dow Jones Industrial Average Index added 0.33%; those on NASDAQ gained 0.32% Composite Index while futures on S&P 500 Index advanced 0.36%.
On the U.S. economic data front, the Labor Department’s weekly jobless claims data is scheduled to be released at 8:30 a.m. EST. Economists polled by Reuters expect initial jobless claims for the week ended April 13 will rise to 350,000 from previous week’s unexpected jump to 346,000.
At 10 :00 a.m. EST, the Conference Board will release its leading economic indicators index for the month of March.
On earnings front, Thursday will be yet another eventful day. Ahead of the bell, Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: PEP), Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE: PM), Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) will report their quarterly results, while tech giants, Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) will release earnings results after the closing bell.
In Asia, market ended mixed while in Europe all leading benchmark indexes were gaining, at last check.
Shares of American Express Company (NYSE: AXP) will be under spotlight on Thursday. The credit card provider, late last evening, reported fiscal first quarter results that showed revenue falling short of analysts’ consensus estimate. However earnings topped expectation.
Shares of online commerce company, eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) fell in premarket trade after the company provided disappointing outlook and reported lower-than-expected revenue.
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Post Written By: Ed Liston
Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.
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