Futures Mixed; Investors Eye Washington

By Tim Paradis

NEW YORK -- Investors are again looking to Washington for clues about the market.

Stock futures are showing only modest moves early Thursday as investors await testimony from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on the White House's proposed overhaul of the nation's financial regulatory system.

Major European markets were steady after a decline in Japan.

Geithner is expected to testify before Senate and House committees on the proposals outlined by President Barack Obama on Wednesday. The plan would give new powers to the Federal Reserve to oversee the entire financial system and also would create a consumer protection agency to guard against credit and other abuses.

Investors are also awaiting data on weekly unemployment claims. Economists predict that new jobless claims changed little last week, but that the number of people continuing to receive unemployment benefits set a 20th straight record.

The Labor Department's tally of new jobless claims is forecast to dip by 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 600,000, according to a survey of Wall Street economists by Thomson Reuters. The report is due at 8:30 a.m. EDT.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 15, or 0.2%, to 8,452. S&P 500 index futures rose 0.80, or 0.1%, to 906.10, while Nasdaq 100 index futures fell 3.50, or 0.2%, to 1,450.00.

Bond prices slipped, pushing up the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note to 3.70% from 3.69% late Wednesday.

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

Light, sweet crude rose 36 cents to $71.39 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.