- GM Removes CEO Henderson; Whitacre is Interim Chief
- Who Were the Biggest Winners And Losers This Year?
- Look Ahead: Markets Count Down to US Jobs Report
- GE, Comcast Complete Deal Over NBC Universal: Source
- US May Raise Rates Before Jobs Recover: Fed's Plosser
- Cramer: Watch Tech Stocks Wednesday
- Stocks Likely Don't Need Santa to Keep Rally Going
- Super Fantasy Christmas Gifts of 2009
- Larry Kudlow's Open Letter to Tiger Woods
- Unemployment to Peak at 10.5%: Moody's Economist
- 8 Stocks to Gain on Obama's Afghan Plan: Analysts
- BofA On Proposed Changes In The Housing Bailout Program
- The Future of The Media Landscape
- November Auto Sales Muddle Along
- Busch: What Obama Won't Say Tonight
- Stick with Equities—Avoid Emerging Markets: Laszlo Birinyi
- Pfizer Chomps On A Carrot
- Predictions 2010: Technology
MOST SHARED
- GE, Comcast Complete Deal Over NBC Universal: Source
- Keeping America Great
- New Incentive To Improve... Your Home, That Is!
- Japan Business Mood at One-Year High: Reuters Tankan
- Lightning Round OT: Incyte, Randgold Resources and More
- Look Ahead: Markets Count Down to US Jobs Report
- Australia Parliament Rejects Carbon Trade Laws
- Predictions 2010: Technology
Text Size 
Futures added to gains following a better-than-expected report on jobless claims that came on top of a positive start to earnings season.
The Labor Department said the number of workers filing new claims for jobless insurance fell to a nine-month low last week. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 33,000 to a seasonally adjusted 521,000 in the week ended Oct. 3, the lowest level since early January.
At the same time, earnings season started strong.
A fresh round of optimism was sparked by the unexpected profit from Dow component Alcoa, which kicked off third quarter earnings season on an upbeat note. Markets ended Wednesday trading mixed.
Alcoa [AA
Loading...
()
] posted earnings after the closing bell Wednesday that beat expectations. Wall Street had expected the aluminum giant to post a narrow loss, but the company actually saw a profit of 8 cents per share.
Alcoa rose 6.3 percent in premarket trading.
Pepsico [PEP
Loading...
()
] also beat expectations in a report released before Thursday trading, and the company affirmed its full-year outlook. Its shares rose 1.4 percent premarket.
Investors also got a snapshot of how the nation's retailers are doing, as individual chains report their September sales numbers throughout the morning. Macy's [M
Loading...
()
] was among the early winners after the retailer posted a drop of 2.4 percent in sales, well below market expectations of 4.6 percent. Its shares rose 2.5 percent premarket.
Other numbers of note today include August wholesale inventories at 10 am, with economists looking for a drop of 1 percent, and the EIA's weekly report on natural gas inventories at 10:30 am.
At 1 pm, the Treasury will auction $12 billion in 30-year bonds, following strong demand at previous auctions this week.
Other stocks to watch include IBM, which is the subject of a Justice Department antitrust probe regarding its behavior in the mainframe computer market. IBM [IBM
Loading...
()
] says there is no basis for any such claims.
It's been an active season as well for mergers and acquisitions, but one deal faces troubles.
In a provisional ruling, Britain's competition regulator said a deal between Ticketmaster Entertainment [TKTM
Loading...
()
] and Live Nation [LYV
Loading...
()
] could lead to higher prices and less competition. The US Justice Department also is examining the deal, which was announced earlier this year.
Also across the pond, the European Central Bank and Bank of England, as expected, both held the line on lending rates. The decisions come a day after Australia's central bank raised its lending rate.
Gold prices will bear watching once again, having set yet another record high in Thursday's trading.
The dollar continued its freefall, tumbling further after the Australian dollar jumped on a strong jobs report and strong earnings sent investors to riskier assets.
- Will the Fed raise rates? Will the dollar continue its slide? CNBC experts weigh in on the year ahead.
- Goldman Sachs has forbidden employees from gathering in private holiday parties of 12 or more.
- Do you have what it takes to run your own business? Ask yourself these questions.
- Heavily armed pirates in Somalia have set up a sort of stock exhange to fund their hijackings.
- Since its launch in 1998, Google has become a primary force on the Internet. How much do you know about the company?
- A famed author has written all his work on an old typewriter that is now up for auction. The NYT reports.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes