U.S. stock futures extended gains following better-than-expected readings on retail sales and jobless claims. About 55 minutes ahead of the open, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures gained 35 points, or 0.1%, to 16374. Just prior to the release of the data, Dow futures were up 22 points. S&P 500 index futures rose four points, or 0.2%, to 1972 and Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 12 points, or 0.3%, to 3719. Changes in stock futures don't always accurately predict stock moves after the opening bell. Retail sales for February rose 0.3% on the month, topping expectations of a 0.2% increase. Excluding autos, sales grew 0.3% versus forecasts of 0.1% growth. Initial claims for jobless benefits in the latest week fell by 9,000 to 315,000, the lowest level since November, and well below expectations of 330,000. In addition, import prices for February rose 0.9% on the month compared with expectations of 0.4%. After the open, business inventories for January, due out at 10 a.m., are forecast to increase 0.3%. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note ticked up to 2.747% from 2.726% late Wednesday. Meanwhile, data released overnight showed that Chinese industrial output in the January-February period rose 8.6% from year-earlier levels, down from 9.7% in December and missing forecasts of 9.5% growth. Retail sales increased 11.8% in the January-February period, but also undershot expectations. That follows data out over the weekend showing a surprise decline in Chinese exports, which led to weakness in global stock markets earlier this week as investors worried about the strength of the world's second-largest economy. The S&P 500 erased an early loss to close fractionally higher on Wednesday, putting the index within 0.5% of Friday's record closing high of 1878.04. Chris Gaffney, senior market strategist at EverBank Wealth Management, isn't too worried about the data out of China, because even though it came in below expectations, it was still pretty strong. "People have come to the realization that global economic growth was slowing in the first two months of the year, but it's still positive," Mr. Gaffney said. As for the U.S. economy, "the sentiment has certainly turned positive again," Mr. Gaffney said. "This market is resilient." That said, he hasn't been seeing much new money flowing into stocks, as investors are already well positioned for gains. "It's a wait-and-see period right now," Mr. Gaffney said. Gold futures gave up 0.2% to $1,368.20 an ounce, after settling Wednesday at a six-month high. Crude oil futures gained 0.6% to $98.57 a barrel. The dollar lost some ground against the euro and the yen. European markets were little changed. The Stoxx Europe 600 was down less than 0.1%, bouncing from a one-month low hit in the previous session. Germany's DAX 30 index tacked on 0.2%, France's CAC 40 eased 0.1% and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 slipped 0.2%. Asian markets took the disappointing Chinese data in stride. China's Shanghai Composite rose 1.1%, after Chinese Premier Li Keqiang promised to keep economic growth at a reasonable pace this year. Regarding the official target for gross domestic product growth of 7.5%, he said the government wasn't preoccupied with GDP growth. Meanwhile, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average eased 0.1%. In corporate news, Plug Power surged 11% in premarket trading after reporting better-than-expected fourth-quarter revenue, and targeted 2014 orders to nearly quadruple 2013's total. The stock dropped 18% this week through Wednesday, after soaring 77% last week. Dow component General Electric rose 0.9% after the company said it filed for an initial public offering of its North American retail finance business.

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