By: CNBC.com US stock index futures rebounded on Thursday, as official data confirming a big jump in Chinese exports were released. Meetings of the European Central Bank and the Bank of England will be watched ahead of the Wall Street open for signs on whether the crisis around the euro zone debt issues is abating. Investors will focus on key employment data which may or may not validate last week’s lacklustre non-farm payrolls report. On Wednesday, news that Chinese exports grew about 50 percent in May from a year earlier fuelled a surge in market confidence across the globe. But the leap put new pressure on U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to soothe congressional critics who claim Beijing is keeping the yuan unfairly undervalued. In addition, China urged the United States on Thursday not to be suspicious about its U.S. Treasury holdings, after the Senate voted to require regular reports on security risks posed by debt held by China and other nations. The European Central Bank meets and will most likely hold its key interest rate at a record low of 1 percent. The ECB faces a grilling over the euro zone's debt crisis on Thursday after a torrid month in which it has abandoned resistance to buying government debt and flung its exit strategy into reverse. The Bank of England will also decide on monetary policy. BP [BP 29.20 -5.4775 (-15.8%) ] shares were hammered again, hitting their lowest level since 1997, even as the company said it saw no justification for such a move. UK industry representatives expressed alarm yesterday at the “inappropriate” and increasingly aggressive rhetoric being deployed against BP by President Barack Obama, and warned that the attacks on the oil company could damage transatlantic relations. Asian stocks rose, but fears lingered that the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis may be spreading. Tokyo and Taipei markets were up over 1 percent, as above-average Chinese export data fuelled confidence that the global economic recovery is on track. The Nikkei ended 1.1 percent higher, moving away from six-month lows hit the previous day, after strong Chinese exports boosted hopes for the global recovery. Gold slipped after Bernanke said bullion was sending a different signal in response to inflation. The metal struck a record at $1,251.20 on Tuesday after investors ditched risky assets, and suspicions lingered over the future of U.S. interest rates. Thursday’s economic data schedule includes Initial Jobless Claims, which will be released at 8:30am New York time, with economists surveyed by Briefing.com forecasting 450,000, almost in line with last week’s number of 453,000. Continuing Claims will be announced at the same time, forcast at 4.6 million. April’s US trade deficit figures will be announced at 8:30am, with Briefing.com economist predicting it to widen to $41.3 billion from $40 billion the month prior. The latest corporate earnings results are expected from Del Monte, New Frontier energy, A-Power Energy, and National Semi. On Wednesday, AT&T [ATT 26.35 -0.04 (-0.15%) ]said some users of Apple’s [AAPL 243.20 -6.13 (-2.46%) ] iPad have had personal information exposed via a network security flaw, two months after the tablet computer was launched and smashed sales expectations.

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