Ford, Facebook rise premarket, new-home sales data could show a decline; NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock futures were higher on Thursday as well-received earnings lifted shares of Facebook Inc. and Ford Motor Co. on a busy day for corporate results. Weekly jobless claims came in far better than expected, as the number of people claiming benefits fell to the lowest level since February 2006. Strong data out of China also underpinned gains across global markets, while in the U.S., investors will be waiting on data that could show a potential drop in new-home sales. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJU4 +0.19% rose 24 points to 17,049, while those for the S&P 500 SPU4 +0.17% SPU4 +0.17% added 2.9 points to 1,983.70. Futures for the Nasdaq-100 NDU4 +0.25% gained 10 points to 3,985.50. Ford F +1.41% shares rose 1.8% in premarket after the car maker beat earnings expectations. General Motors Co. GM -2.43% profit sank 80% as the auto maker was hit by recalls. Adjusted earnings matched analyst expectations. Shares were 2% lower in premarket. Among the decliners, Shares of TripAdvisor Inc. TRIP -9.87% sank 11% in premarket and Angie’s List Inc. ANGI -18.19% tumbled 21% after those companies separately reported late Wednesday. Among the early reporters Caterpillar Inc. CAT -2.75% shares dropped 2.8% after the maker of manufacturing equipment said sales fell short of expectations in the second quarter, but the company raised its earnings outlook again. Shares of Facebook FB +7.67% jumped more than 7.7% in premarket action after profit and sales beat expectations . Gilead Sciences Inc. GILD +1.33% posted strong second-quarter results, lifting shares 1% in after-hours trading. Qualcomm Inc. QCOM -5.55% was under pressure after the wireless-tech company noted some worries about licensees in China, even as it lifted its full-year adjusted earnings outlook. Shares fell more than 5% in premarket. For more on Thursday’s notable movers, read our Mover & Shakers column. The biggest piece of data for Thursday could be new-home sales, and economists polled by MarketWatch are expecting the annualized sales pace of new single-family homes dropped to 475,000 in June, from a big 504,000-jump in May. The data is due at 10 a.m. Eastern Time. The number of people who applied for regular state unemployment-insurance benefits in the week that ended July 19 tumbled by 19,000 to 284,000 -- the lowest level since February 2006 -- signaling that companies have further slowed down the pace of layoffs and are letting go of few workers, according to government data released Thursday. After several days of flip-flopping between gains and losses, the S&P 500 index SPX +0.18% index logged its 26th record close this year on Wednesday, boosted by well-received results from Biogen Idec Inc. BIIB +0.18% and Apple Inc. AAPL -0.30% . Outside of a loss for the Nikkei 225 index JP:NIK -0.29% , Asian stocks rose across the board Thursday with a 1.2% gain for the China Shanghai Composite CN:SHCOMP +1.28% , after a preliminary reading of Chinese manufacturing data from HSBC hit an 18-month high. European stocks XX:SXXP +0.46% gained across the board amid a big earnings day there. Crude-oil CLU4 -0.14% edged lower along with gold prices GCQ4 -0.48% , while the dollar DXY +0.00% steadied.

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