US Stock Futures Up As Investors Await Jobless Claims, GDP Data

US stock futures are higher this morning, as investors are awaiting data on jobless claims and first-quarter economic growth. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 29 points to 12,380.00 and futures on the S&P 500 stock index rose 2.70 points to 1,319.30. Nasdaq 100 futures gained 0.50 point to 2,310.00. US stocks closed higher on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average gaining 0.31% to 12,394.66, the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index rising 0.32% to 1,320.47 and the NASDAQ composite index surging 0.55% to 2,761.38. Data on weekly jobless claims and revised Q1 gross domestic product will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Fred's Inc FRED is expected to post its Q1 EPS at $0.24 on revenue of $485.05 million. Tiffany & Co TIF is projected to report its Q1 EPS at $0.57 on revenue of $703.32 million. HJ Heinz Co HNZ is estimated to report its FQ4 earnings at $0.72 per share on revenue of $2.87 billion. Patterson Companies Inc PDCO is projected to report its Q4 EPS at $0.51 on revenue of $844.81 million. HHGregg Inc HGG is estimated to post its Q4 EPS at $0.29 on revenue of $518.16 million. Marvell Technology Group Ltd MRVL is projected to report its Q1 EPS at $0.30 on revenue of $826.12 billion. Signet Jewelers Limited SIG is projected to post its Q1 EPS at $0.73 on revenue of $858.29 million. Guess? Inc GES reported upbeat results for its fiscal first-quarter. The retailer's quarterly profit dropped to $42.7 million, or $0.46 per share, from $50.3 million, or $0.54 per share, in the year-ago period. Its revenue surged around 10% to $592.2 million from $539.3 million. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.44 per share on revenue of $567.72 million. The retailer projects fiscal 2012 earnings of $3.30 to $3.50 per share. NetApp Inc NTAP reported upbeat fourth-quarter results. Shares of Computer Sciences Corporation CSC dipped about 6.9% in pre-market trading after the company reported a 34% drop in its earnings for the fourth fiscal quarter. The company's net income from continuing operations dropped to $171 million, or $1.01 per share, from $259 million, or $1.66 per share, in the year-ago period. CSC's revenue came in at $4.2 billion for the recent quarter. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $1.11 per share on revenue of $4.23 billion. The company projects fiscal 2012 revenue in the range of $16.5 billion to $17 billion, versus analysts' estimates of $16.6 billion. Sony Corp SNE posted a wider loss in the year that ended in March. For the current fiscal year, Sony projects to post a net profit of Y80 billion ($975.6 million). Most Asian markets ended higher, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average surging 1.48%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving up 1.58% and China's Shanghai Composite declining 0.19%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 0.67% and India's Sensex jumped 1.06%. European markets were mixed today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index has dropped 0.12%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved up 0.39%. July crude oil futures dropped $0.47 to $100.85 a barrel in electronic trading. The dollar index (DXY) fell 0.4% to 75.642. The euro gained versus the US dollar. Read more from Benzinga's Markets.