Before The Bell: Decline In Initial Jobless Claims Gives A Ray Of Hope

US stock futures recorded marginal gains on Thursday, after a higher-than-expected decline in weekly unemployment claims. This was like a ray of hope in the otherwise gloomy atmosphere created by a stream of disappointing economic data over the past few days. The Labor Department announced a 31,000 decline in initial jobless claims to 473,000 for the week ended August 21. New claims for the prior week, ended August 14, were revised upward from 500,000 to 504,000. Dampening the mood was the four-week moving average, which smoothens volatility in the data. It by 3,250 to 486,750, marking the highest level since the week ended November 28, 2009. Most Asian equity markets inched up on Thursday. Upbeat earnings reports by blue-chip companies helped the European stocks move higher as well. Standex International SXI reported a rise in its Q4 net income to $8.36 million or $0.66 per share, from $5.68 million or $0.45 per share in the same quarter in 2009. SXI’s net sales grew 8.7% to $152.1 million, from $139.9 million in Q4 of last year. DHT Holdings Inc DHT announced a net loss of $2.0 million, or $0.04 per diluted share, for Q2, as compared to a net income of $5.0 million, or $0.10 per diluted share, for Q2 of 2009. The company’s revenues from April 1 to June 30 fell to $21.1 million, from $26.2 million in the same quarter a year earlier. China’s leading provider of distributed power generation systems A-Power Energy Generation Systems APWR announced unaudited financial results for Q2, with revenue growing 30.1% to $74.8 million, from $57.5 million in the year-ago quarter. Gross profit rose 51.1% to $11.6 million, from $7.7 million in Q2 of 2009. Fred's Inc FRED reported its Q2 net income at $5.0 million or $0.13 per diluted share, up 17% from $4.2 million or $0.11 per diluted share in the year-ago quarter. FRED’s total sales for the quarter grew 4% to $449.5 million, from $434.2 million in Q2 of 2009. GigaMedia Limited GIGM announced a Q2 net income of $52.5 million, with EBITDA at $59.8 million. Basic and fully-diluted EPS stood at $0.94 and US$0.87, respectively. Read more from Benzinga's Markets.