Morning Briefing: 10 Things You Should Know
NEW YORK (
) -- U.S. stock futures were pointing to a slightly lower Wall Street open Thursday ahead of Friday's all-important monthly jobs report.
European stocks were rising slightly while Asian shares finished mixed despite signs of strengthening Chinese manufacturing. Japan's Nikkei 225 index gained 0.2% to close at 8,946.9.
The economic calendar in the U.S. Thursday includes the ADP employment report at 8:15 a.m. EDT and weekly jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. In addition, ISM manufacturing data is due at 10 a.m., as is the Conference Board's monthly Consumer Confidence Index.
finished mixed Wednesday in the first full day of trading since Hurricane Sandy forced a historic two-day shutdown of major U.S. markets.
The
Dow Jones Industrial Average
shed 11 points, or 0.08%, to close at 13,096 on its first day of trading since Oct. 26.
The
S&P 500
added less than 1 point, or 0.02%, to 1412. The
Nasdaq
dipped 11 points, or 0.36%, to finish at 2977.
Exxon Mobil
(XOM) - Get Report
, the oil giant, is expected by analysts Thursday to report third-quarter earnings of $1.96 a share on revenue of $112.4 billion.
Rival
Royal Dutch Shell
(RDS.A)
said Thursday that third-quarter core earnings declined 15% as oil and gas prices fell.
Drugmaker
Pfizer
(PFE) - Get Report
is expected by analysts to post quarterly earnings Thursday of 53 cents a share on revenue of $14.64 billion.
Sirius XM
(SIRI) - Get Report
is expected by analysts Thursday to post third-quarter earnings of 2 cents a share, the same as a year earlier.
Reports are also expected from
AIG
(AIG) - Get Report
,
Kellogg
(K) - Get Report
and
Starbucks
(SBUX) - Get Report
.
U.S. retailers are expected to report October sales on Thursday.
Costco
(COST) - Get Report
said Thursday that same-store sales during the month rose 7%, higher than analysts' estimates.
, including
Ford
and
General Motors
, will be posting monthly sales on Thursday.
Both companies beat analysts' earnings estimates earlier this week, reflecting the strong U.S. auto market, and they unveiled aggressive plans to restructure in Europe.
-- Written by Joseph Woelfel
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Joseph Woelfel
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