Morning Briefing: 10 Things You Should Know

U.S. stock futures are weaker; Facebook's earnings top estimates; GM, Amazon and 3M highlight Thursday's earnings calendar.
By Joseph Woelfel ,

NEW YORK (

TheStreet

) -- Here are 10 things you should know for Thursday, July 25:

1.

-- U.S. stock futures were pointing to a weaker start on Wall Street on Thursday, as Asian stocks fell but European stocks gained on improved German business confidence data.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 1.1% to close at 14,562.93.

2.

-- The

economic calendar

in the U.S. Thursday includes weekly initial jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. EDT, and durable goods orders for June at 8:30 a.m.

3.

--

U.S. stocks

on Wednesday finished mixed as the

S&P 500

shied away from topping the 1,700 mark after coming within just points of what would have been a milestone mark for the index as caution prevailed.

The S&P 500 fell 0.38% to finish at 1,685.94. The

Dow Jones Industrial Average

dropped 0.16% to 15,542.24. The tech-heavy Nasdaq rose incrementally to 3,579.60.

4.

--

Facebook

(FB) - Get Report

beat second-quarter earnings estimates on Wednesday, led by strength in mobile revenue.

The social networking giant earned 19 cents a share on revenue of $1.813 billion for the quarter, as mobile advertising revenue accounted for 41% of advertising revenue. Total advertising revenue was $1.6 billion, 88% of total revenue, and up 61% from last year.

Analysts were expecting Facebook to earn 14 cents a share on revenue of $1.62 billion.

"We've made good progress growing our community, deepening engagement and delivering strong financial results, especially on mobile," CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg said in the press release. "The work we've done to make mobile the best Facebook experience is showing good results and provides us with a solid foundation for the future."

The company ended the quarter with 1.15 billion monthly active users (MAUs), up 21% year over year. There was a 51% annual increase in mobile MAUs, which drove the strength in mobile revenue. Daily active users (DAUs) were 699 million, up 27% annually.

5.

-- Wall Street expects automaker

General Motors

(GM) - Get Report

to report second-quarter earnings of 75 cents a share on revenue of $38.37 billion.

General Motors earned 90 cents a share on revenue of $37.4 billion in the year-earlier quarter.

6.

--

Amazon.com

(AMZN) - Get Report

reports second-quarter earnings after Thursday's closing bell and Wall Street expects the world's largest online retailer to post a profit of 5 cents a share on revenue of $15.73 billion.

Growth in U.S. revenue is expected to remain strong while weakness persists in Europe.

Amazon earned $7 million, or 1 cent a share, on revenue of $12.83 billion a year earlier.

7.

--

3M

(MMM) - Get Report

is expected to post second-quarter earnings of $1.70 a share on revenue of $7.77 billion.

8.

--

Visa

(V) - Get Report

swung to a profit in its fiscal third quarter, posting earnings of $1.23 billion, or $1.88 a share, a reversal from the year-earlier loss of $1.84 billion, or $2.74 a share.

Visa processed 15 billion transactions during the quarter, up 14% from last year.

9.

--

CKE

, the restaurant company that operates the Carl's Jr and Hardees fast food chains,

is exploring a potential sale

after postponing its initial public offering last year,

Reuters

reported, citing three people familiar with the matter.

10.

--

Google

(GOOG) - Get Report

introduced on Wednesday an updated

Nexus 7 tablet

and an inexpensive new device to stream Web videos, music and photos to a high-definition television and control the process from a laptop, Android,

Microsoft

Windows or

Apple

Mac and iOS device.

The new 7-inch Nexus 7 tablet is manufactured by

Asus

. The updated tablet, which starts at $229, is thinner, lighter in weight and has front and back cameras.

-- Written by Joseph Woelfel

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

Joseph Woelfel

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tips@thestreet.com

.

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