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Futures Hold Gains After Jobless Claims News
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Stock index futures held their modest gains Thursday after weekly jobless claims were unchanged, remaining at its lowest level since 2008.
Claims for unemployment benefits were unchanged at 351,000 last week, according to the Labor Department. Economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast claims rising to 354,000.
European shares turned lower after an EU official said the region's economy is heading for its second recession in three years, overshadowing earlier optimism that German business sentiment rose to its strongest level in seven months in February.
Apple [AAPL
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] is scheduled to hold its annual meeting this afternoon with investors speculating about a possible dividend announcement.
Among earnings, Hewlett-Packard [HPQ
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] tumbled after the tech giant posted an 18 percent decline in quarterly earnings. Meanwhile, CEO Meg Whitman warned of rising wages in China which could eventually have a ripple effect across the industry.
Target [TGT
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] reported results that topped expectations, helped by robust holiday sales.
Meanwhile, Kohl's [KSS
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] fell after the department store chain said it expects sales to gain this fiscal year, but handed in earnings that missed forecasts.
Sears [SHLD
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] surged after the retailer announced it intends to separate some of its businesses through a rights offering expected to raise $400 million to $500 million. In addition, Sears added it had reached a deal to sell 11 stores to General Growth Properties [GGP
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]. Meanwhile, the firm posted a big quarterly net loss, hurt by a poor holiday season.
As earnings season winds down, 424 companies of the S&P 500 companies have reported results so far, with 64 percent topping expectations.
AIG [AIG
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] and Gap [GPS
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] are among companies slated to post earnings after-the-bell tonight.
Vivus shares [VVUS
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] more than doubled in value after the FDA backed the drugmaker's diet pill Qnexa. If passed, the drug would be the first obesity pill to get approved in 13 yeras.
The Energy Department releases the regular weekly report on natural gas inventories at 10:30am, and the holiday-delayed oil and gasoline inventory numbers at 11am.
The Treasury will auction $29 billion in 7-year notes, with the results of the sale available shortly after 1 pm.
—Follow JeeYeon Park on Twitter: —
Coming Up This Week:
THURSDAY: FHFA home price index, oil inventories, 7-yr note auction, Apple shareholders meeting; Earnings from AIG, Gap
FRIDAY: Consumer sentiment, new home sales; Earnings from JCPenney
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Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes
