BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - Weekly Jobless Claims and Durable Goods Orders are the highlights on Thursday. Major corporates such as Facebook, Microsoft, Tesla and Visa are reporting their earnings results today.
Asian shares finished mixed, while European shares are trading mostly in the red.
As of 7.50 am ET, the Dow futures were losing 85 points, the S&P 500 futures were up 1.75 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures were progressing 19.75 points.
U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday. The Dow fell 59.34 points or 0.2 percent to 26,597.05 points, the Nasdaq slipped 18.81 points or 0.2 percent to 8,102.01 and the S&P 500 dipped 6.43 points or 0.2 percent to 2,927.25.
On the economic front, the Durable Goods Orders for March will be published at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is for an increase of 0.7 percent, while it was down 1.6 percent in the previous month.
The Labor Department's Jobless Claims for the week will be issued at 8.30 am ET. The economists are looking for consensus of 209K while it was 192K in the previous week.
The Energy Information Administration or EIA's Natural Gas Report for the week will be published at 10.30 am ET. In the prior week, the change was decline of 92 bcf.
EIA's Petroleum Status Report for the week will be revealed at 11.00 am ET. In the previous week, the crude oil inventories were up 3.6 million barrels and Gasoline were up 0.4 million barrels.
Seven year Treasury Note auction will be held at 1.00 pm ET.
The Fed Balance Sheet for the week is expected at 4.30 pm ET. In the previous week, the level was $3.932 trillion.
The Fed Money Supply for week is scheduled at 4.30 pm ET. The M2 weekly change was a deficit of $24.3 billion.
In the corporate sector, Comcast Corp. reported a 14 percent increase in profit for the first quarter from last year. Revenues recorded a double-digit growth.
Net profit attributable to Comcast for the first quarter rose to $3.55 billion or $0.77 per share from $3.12 billion or $0.66 per share in the year-ago period. Excluding items, adjusted earnings for the quarter were $0.76, compared to $0.65 per share in the prior-year period. Revenue for the quarter grew 17.9 percent to $26.86 billion from $22.79 billion in the same period last year.
Asian stocks ended mixed on Thursday. China's Shanghai Composite index slumped 2.43 percent to 3,123.83 on fears of easing stimulus. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index declined 0.86 percent to finish at 29,549.80.
Markets in Australia and New Zealand were closed for ANZAC Day. Japan's Nikkei average rose nearly half a percent to 22,307.58.
European shares are trading broadly lower. CAC 40 of France is down 13.18 points or 0.24 percent. DAX of Germany is declining 15.40 points or 0.12 percent. FTSE 100 of England is losing 38.12 points or 0.51 percent. Swiss Market Index is up 19.68 points or 0.20 percent.
Euro Stoxx 50 that provides a Blue-chip representation of supersector leaders in the Eurozone, is down 0.30 percent.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX