By Kate Gibson
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stock futures on Thursday turned higher after the government said first-time claims for jobless benefits fell 47,000 to 522,000 last week. Up 24 points ahead of the economic data, futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 55 points to 8,598. Futures for the S&P 500 Index gained 3.4 points to 930.6, while Nasdaq 100 futures rose fractionally to 1,498.
