Morning Briefing: 10 Things You Should Know

U.S. stock futures point lower; Exxon and Pfizer report earnings Thursday; ADP employment report to be released; retailers post sales for October.
By Joseph Woelfel ,

NEW YORK (

TheStreet

) -- 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.

U.S. stocks

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.

Automakers

, 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

>To contact the writer of this article, click here:

Joseph Woelfel

>To submit a news tip, send an email to:

tips@thestreet.com

.

Loading ...