U.S. stock market futures dropped Thursday as nervous investors showed no appetite for extending the previous session's modest gains. Meawhile, Kraft Foods Inc. was in focus after announcing plans to split and the market was awaiting the latest U.S. figures on weekly jobless claims. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 76 points to 11,742 and Standard & Poor's 500 index futures (GLC:SP1U) were down 9.40 points at 1,245.10. Nasdaq 100 futures (GLC:ND1U) dropped 16.50 points to 2,286. Shares of Kraft, however, were up 5% in premarket trading after the food giant announced a plan to break in two, splitting its global snack division from its North American grocery business. Kraft also lifted its earnings forecast for the year and posted better-than-expected earnings growth. The Dow industrials closed up around 30 points on Wednesday, booking its first day of gains in nine sessions, as largely upbeat corporate results helped offset more disappointing data on activity in the services sector and at factories. On the data front, weekly jobless claims figures will be released at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. Economists are expecting claims to edge back up over 400,000 from 398,000 in the previous week. The data will come as a precursor to Friday's closely watched nonfarm payrolls figures. Economists are expecting Friday's numbers to show 75,000 jobs were added in July following extremely disappointing figures in June. "At the moment mild panic seems to be setting in and whilst there has yet to be a mad rush for the exit, there's a feeling that investors are treading on thin ice," said Simon Denham, head of Capital Spreads. "In order to turn things around we're going to need something spectacular from tomorrow's nonfarm payrolls," he added. The recent stream of disappointing data has weighed on the dollar, but that trend reversed sharply overnight after Japan intervened in currency markets to curb the yen's strength. The dollar jumped 3.5% against the yen to Y79.80 and the dollar index rose by 1.3% to 74.88. Japan's Nikkei index closed up 0.2% as most other Asian markets fell. European markets gave up early gains to trade lower Thursday as sovereign debt worries continued to hang over the Continent. The FTSE 100 index dropped 1.2%, after rising as much as 1.1% earlier in the session. European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet is likely to take a wait-and-see approach to future interest rate moves at a press conference Thursday amid slowing growth and the market turmoil created by the sovereign crisis. The press conference will follow a rate decision by the ECB, which is expected to leave rates unchanged. In a separate decision, the Bank of England made no change to its monetary policy. On the corporate front, Thursday will see another round of earnings announcements and sales updates from retailers. Kicking of the July sales announcements, Costco Wholesale Corp. said its same-store sales rose 10%, with much of the increase due to inflation in gasoline prices and strengthening foreign currencies.

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