US Stock Futures Slightly Up As Investors Await Economic Data

US stock futures are slightly higher this morning, as investors are awaiting data on weekly jobless numbers, existing home sales and leading indicators. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 14 points to 12,546.00 and futures on the S&P 500 stock index rose 1.40 points to 1,340.00. Nasdaq 100 futures gained 2.75 points to 2,364.25. US stocks closed higher on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average gaining 0.65% to 12,560.18, the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index rising 0.88% to 1,340.68 and the NASDAQ composite index surging 1.14% to 2,815.00. Data on weekly jobless claims will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. However, data on April existing home sales, leading indicators, along with the Philadelphia Fed Index of business activity for May will be released at 10 a.m. Williams Sonoma Inc WSM is expected to report its Q1 earnings at $0.28 per share on revenue of $765.20 million. GameStop Corp GME is projected to post its Q1 earnings at $0.54 per share on revenue of $2.23 billion. Ross Stores Inc ROST is expected to report its Q1 EPS at $1.47 on revenue of $2.06 billion. Gap Inc GPS is estimated to report its Q1 EPS at $0.39 on revenue of $3.30 billion. Autodesk Inc ADSK is expected to report its Q1 earnings at $0.37 per share on revenue of $522.77 million. Salesforce.com Inc CRM is projected to report its Q1 earnings at $0.27 per share on revenue of $482.45 million. Dollar Tree Inc DLTR is expected to report its Q1 EPS at $0.75 on revenue of $1.51 billion. Foot Locker Inc FL is projected to post its Q1 earnings at $0.44 per share on revenue of $1.34 billion. Aeropostale Inc ARO is estimated to post its Q1 EPS at $0.20 on revenue of $477.05 million. Limited Brands Inc LTD reported its Q1 earnings at $165.2 million, or $0.50 per share, up 47% from $112.5 million, or $0.34 per share, in the year-ago period. Excluding one-time items, the company's earnings came in at $0.40 per share. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.39 per share. The company's revenue surged 15% to $2.22 billion. Its revenue at stores open at least a year increased 15%. For the full fiscal year, Limited projects earnings of $2.25 to $2.45 per share, versus analysts' estimates of $2.25 per share. Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc DPS reported that its Board of Directors raised the quarterly dividend from $0.25 per share to $0.32 per share. Japan's gross domestic product contracted by 0.9% in the January-March quarter. Asian markets ended mixed, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average dropping 0.43%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving up 1.32% and China's Shanghai Composite declining 0.46%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 0.66% and India's Sensex gained 0.31%. European markets were higher today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index has gained 0.59%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved up 0.81%. International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn announced his resignation from the post, but denied allegations that have been made against him. The US dollar gained versus the Japanese yen. The US dollar index (DXY) fell 0.23% to 75.30. Crude oil for June delivery gained 0.23% to $100.33 a barrel. However, gold futures for June dropped 0.31% to $1,491.20 an ounce and silver futures for July gained 0.39% to $35.23 an ounce. Read more from Benzinga's Markets.