US Stock Futures Slightly Higher Ahead of Jobless-Claims Data

US stock futures are slightly higher this morning, as investors are awaiting weekly jobless-claims data. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 25 points to 12,106.00 and futures on the S&P 500 stock index rose 2.40 points to 1,246.90. Nasdaq 100 futures surged 3.50 points to 2,263.00. US stocks closed lower on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average dropping 1.14% to 12,151.41, the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index declining 1.25% to 1,249.64 and the NASDAQ composite index falling 1.34% to 2,589.98. The Labor Department is scheduled to release its latest jobless-claims data at 8:30 a.m. ET. The purchasing-managers index for the Chicago region will be released at 9:45 a.m. ET and November pending home sales data will be released at 10 a.m. ET. The Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank survey results for December will be released at 11 a.m. ET. The Mosaic Company MOS announced its plans to cut its quarterly finished phosphate production by around 10%. Leggett & Platt Inc LEG projects weaker-than-expected full-year earnings and projects to take pretax charges of $36 million in the fourth quarter. Citigroup Inc C announced its plans to sell its Belgian consumer business to French bank Credit Mutuel Nord Europe. Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc ALXN announced its plans to acquire drug developer Enobia Pharma Corp in a deal valued at up to $1.08 billion. Asian markets ended mostly lower, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average dropping 0.3089%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index declining 0.45% and China's Shanghai Composite gaining 0.16%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 0.6520% and India's Sensex dropped 1.17%. European markets were higher today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index has gained 0.07%, London's FTSE 100 index rose 0.15%, German DAX 30 index rose 0.27% and France CAC 40 index surged 0.07%. Italy sold about 7.02 billion euros ($9 billion) of government bonds, news reports said. Three-year debt bonds were sold at a yield of 5.62%, down from 7.89% in an auction last month, Reuters reported. However, 10-year bonds were sold at a yield of 6.98%, versus 7.56% last month. Nymex crude-oil futures gained $0.07 to $99.43 a barrel in electronic trade. The dollar index (DXY) gained 0.2% to 80.699.