BEFORE THE BELL: US Stock Futures Up Before Jobless





U.S. stock futures edged higher on Thursday, tracking gains in European and Japanese equities, as investors awaited data on weekly jobless claims and sales reports from retailers.

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 34 points to 11698 and S&P 500 index futures rose 4 points to 1275.80. Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 7.75 points to 2277.50.

A report on weekly jobless claims is due at 8:30 a.m., EST, which will give more clues on the state of the U.S. labor market ahead of Friday's closely watched report on nonfarm payrolls.

Data on Wednesday showed a sharp rise in U.S. private-sector employment for December, boosting sentiment on Wall Street. The blue-chip Dow index closed up 0.3%.

"Both today and tomorrow will center around nonfarm payrolls, especially after the incredible beat delivered by the ADP employment report," said Mads Koefoed, market strategist at Saxo Bank.

Private-sector employment surged by a record 297,000 in December, Automatic Data Processing Inc.'s (ADP) report showed on Wednesday. The number was well above market expectations.

"People are revising their estimates [for nonfarm payrolls] up and that is what is fueling the stock market at the moment," Koefoed said. "What we've seen over the last couple of months has been very solid data from the U.S. from all parts of the economy except the labor markets.

"It seems that now this remaining stubborn sector is improving and that will really fuel sentiment that the U.S. economy is in a robust recovery," he said.

U.S. retailers, such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) and Macy's Inc. (M), are scheduled to report December same-store sales on Thursday.

Discounter Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST) said its same-store sales rose 6% in December, while those at home-furnishings retailer Pier 1 Imports Inc. (PIR) increased 10.3%.

On the earnings front, Monsanto Co. (MON), the giant supplier of agricultural products for farmers, will release quarterly results. It's expected to report a fiscal first-quarter profit of 1 cent a share.

U.S.-listed shares of oil giant BP PLC (BP, BP.LN) gained nearly 2% in premarket trading, as investors appeared to shrug off news that a U.S. presidential commission concluded that the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the worst in the nation's history, resulted from "a failure of management" at BP, Halliburton Co. (HAL) and Transocean Ltd. (RIG). Shares of Transocean gained 1% in premarket trading.

In other premarket trading, shares of ARM Holdings PLC (ARMH) rallied nearly 10% after software giant Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) announced that the next version of Windows will support ARM-based systems.

Asian stocks ended mixed overnight. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rallied 1.4%, while China's Shanghai Composite dropped 0.5%.

In Europe, equities traded higher, with the Stoxx Europe 600 index rising 0.8% in intraday trading.

In the currency markets, the euro fell 0.4% to $1.3120. The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of other major currencies, gained 0.1% to 80.339.

Gold futures were little changed at $1,374 an ounce, while oil futures dropped 29 cents to $90.01 a barrel.