U.S. stock index futures were mixed on Thursday due to concerns over a weak earnings season that gave more warnings of further pain to come, with the market also awaiting data on the labor and housing markets. But the Nasdaq could see some support from Apple (AAPL.O), which announced quarterly profit that surpassed Wall Street's expectations after the closing bell on Wednesday. Shares of the iPod maker were up 8.1 percent at $89.50 in premarket trading. Despite some bright spots such as Apple and International Business Machines Corp (IBM.N), the earnings season continues to be weak with more companies warning about the year to come. Among the morning's fresh batch of quarterly results, world No. 1 defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) posted a better-than-expected rise in profit but sharply cut its full-year forecast. For details, see [ID:nN22520118]. "The market knows it's not going to be a good earnings season," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Avalon Partners in New York. "We've had one or two surprises, but basically so far the earnings have been in line with negative expectations." Regarding the broader economy, weekly data on claims for jobless benefits are due from the Labor Department at 8:30 a.m. ET (1330 GMT). The figure for first-time claims is expected to have risen to 540,000 from 524,000 the previous week. Also expected at 8:30 a.m. are the government's housing starts and building permits data for December. S&P 500 futures SPc1 fell 3.10 points and were below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures DJc1 were down 45 points, but Nasdaq 100 NDc1 futures added 5.75 points. Stocks had risen on Wednesday, rebounding from a two-month low, after a surprisingly strong earnings report from IBM fueled optimism that technology may fare better than other sectors during the recession. Technology shares are likely to stay in focus on Thursday with quarterly earnings expected from Microsoft (MSFT.O) and Google (GOOG.O) after the closing bell. Overseas, top cellphone maker Nokia (NOK1V.HE) added to worries over the impact of the economic slowdown on consumer spending, warning market volumes would shrink 10 percent this year

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