Stock futures rise as investors await more data

[December 18, 2008]  NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street headed for a moderately higher open Thursday, with investors cautiously optimistic ahead of readings on unemployment claims and corporate profits.

The reports will arrive as President-elect Barack Obama's aides assemble a two-year stimulus plan that could cost $850 billion. The package would include new jobs, middle-class tax relief and expanded aid for the poor and the unemployed.

A stimulus plan for Americans became an especially high priority earlier this month, when the Labor Department reported that U.S. employers slashed more than half a million jobs in November. On Thursday, the Labor Department is expected to report that new claims for unemployment benefits slipped to 558,000 last week, according to a survey of economists by Thomson Reuters -- but that figure is still near last week's 26-year high of 573,000.

In addition to the jobless claims report, investors will be analyzing earnings reports due Thursday from such companies as shipper FedEx Corp. and technology bellwether Oracle Corp.

Ahead of the market's open, Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 56, or 0.64 percent, to 8,835. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 4.40, or 0.49 percent, to 907.40, while Nasdaq 100 index futures rose 4.25, or 0.35 percent, to 1,233.00.

On Wednesday, the Dow fell nearly 100 points as enthusiasm over the Federal Reserve's historic rate cut Tuesday dampened on news of a larger-than-expected loss at Morgan Stanley and layoffs at Cooper Tire and Rubber Co. and Newell Rubbermaid Inc.

In early trading Thursday, yields on long-term Treasurys fell to record lows. The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices rose.

Light, sweet crude rose 55 cents to $40.61 a barrel in electronic premarket trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Markets overseas were mostly higher. Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 0.64 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 0.24 percent. In late morning trading, Britain's FTSE 100 was up less than 0.01 percent, Germany's DAX index rose 0.96 percent, and France's CAC-40 fell 0.65 percent.

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On the Net:

New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com/

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[Associated Press; By MADLEN READ]

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