Stock futures up ahead of jobs, retail sales data

[September 03, 2009]  NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. stock futures are pointing to a higher opening Thursday as investors await reports on two of the economy's biggest problem areas: jobs and consumer spending.

Overseas markets were mixed, while Treasury prices fell.

The rise in stock futures comes after four days of losses in the stock market, driven by concerns that the economy is not healing fast enough, and that a six-month run-up in stocks had gone too far.

Reports on housing and manufacturing have shown improvement, but unemployment, and the resulting clampdown on consumer spending, has investors worried.

On Thursday, the market will be looking to a slew of sales reports from major retailers for more insight on consumer spending habits. Meanwhile, the Labor Department will release its weekly report on the number of unemployed workers filing for jobless benefits. That report comes one day before the government's report on August job losses -- the month's most telling piece of economic data. In July, job losses slowed and the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell. Investors are eager to see those trends continue in August.

A private sector report on unemployment on Wednesday, however, didn't offer investors much hope. The ADP National Employment Report, considered a harbinger for the government's data, found that employment fell by 298,000 in August. Though it was the fewest number of jobs lost since September 2008, it was more than analysts had expected.

Ahead of the market's open, Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 27, or 0.3 percent, to 9,304. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 4.20, or 0.4 percent, to 998.40, while Nasdaq 100 index futures rose 7, or 0.4 percent, to 1,600.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 0.6 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index jumped 1.2 percent. In late morning trading in Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.1 percent, Germany's DAX index rose 0.2 percent, and France's CAC-40 inched up 0.1 percent.

Bond prices fell in early trading. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 3.35 percent from 3.31 percent late Wednesday.

The dollar fell against other major currencies, while gold prices rose.

Oil prices rose $1.02 to $69.07 a barrel in premarket trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

[Associated Press; By SARA LEPRO]

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