Stock futures were modestly higher early Thursday, pointing toward a second day of gains, as the debt situation in Europe calmed and U.S. investors turned their attentions back to economic data and corporate earnings.
As of 6:30 a.m. in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up 35 points, or 0.32%, to 11050, the S&P 500 futures were up 6.3 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures added 8.25 points to 2015.00.
In the aftermath following the downgrades Greece, Portugal and Spain's debts on Tuesday and Wednesday, European markets were broadly higher and the euro began to recover some lost territory against the dollar.
The continent's major indices were up between 0.4% and 0.9% in the first half of trading while the euro rose 0.35% against the dollar and yen respectively. With Greece, Portugal and Spain downgraded, only Ireland and Italy are left in the so-called "PIIGS" nations yet to be downgraded by Standards & Poor's.
It's a heavy day in corporate earnings yet again for Wall Street today, with results from Exxon Mobil (XOM: 68.91, 0, 0%), Procter & Gamble (PG: 63.19, 0, 0%), ConocoPhillips (COP: 58.46, 0, 0%) among others out before the opening bell.
Investors will also get weekly jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. ET today. Economists, on average, expect that weekly claims fell by 11,000 to 445,000 claims last week while continuing claims, those drawing on unemployment insurance for more than a week, fell by 21,000.
The companies Hewlett-Packard (HPQ: 53.32, 0, 0%) and Palm (PALM: 4.63, 0, 0%) will be in focus for Thursday's session following HP's surprise announcement late Wednesday that it will purchase the personal device maker for $1.2 billion, or $5.70 a share. The price represented a 23% premium to Palm's closing price and also ends months of speculation about the fate of Palm, who was facing harsh competition in all directions from Research in Motion, Apple, Google and many others.
Shares of HP were down 0.7% in the pre-market session while Palm shares jumped 25.5% on the news.
In the commodity markets, oil jumped 1.2% to $84.20 a barrel partially on dollar weakness while gold fell $3.80 to $1,168.00 a troy ounce.
On Wednesday, the Dow rose 53.28 points, or 0.48%, to 11045.27, the Standard & Poor's 500 added 7.65 points, or 0.65%, to 1191.36 and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.26 points, or 0.01%, to 2471.73. The FOX 50 picked up 5.16 points, or 0.60%, to 868.27.
