Futures Up as Jobless Claims Fall

U.S. stock futures point to a stronger open Thursday as initial weekly jobless claims fell to a better-than-expected level of 421,000.
By Melinda Peer ,

NEW YORK (

TheStreet

) -- Stock futures pointed to a stronger open Thursday as initial weekly jobless claims fell to a better-than-expected level of 421,000 and Japan said its economy grew faster than previously estimated.

Futures for the

Dow Jones Industrial Average

were up by 26 points, or 28 points below fair value, at 11,394. Futures for the

S&P 500

were 4 points higher, or 5 points above fair value, at 1,232, and

Nasdaq

futures were ahead by nearly 6 points, or 6 points above fair value.

The Labor Department said initial jobless claims fell by 17,000 to 421,000 in the week ended Dec. 4, from 438,000, previously. The decline was an upside surprise for the market, which had been expecting a drop of 7,000 claims to 429,000 from an initially-reported level of 436,000.

On Thursday, Japan's government upwardly revised the country's economic growth rate for the July-to-September period to 4.5% from 3.9%. Japan's Nikkei advanced 0.5%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.3%.

Stocks finished Wednesday's session with mild gains after hovering around the flat line for most of the session.

The

Bank of England kept its key lending rate unchanged at 0.5%, as expected. The FTSE in London was up by 0.3% while the DAX in Frankfurt was off by 0.05%.

The Department of Commerce releases October wholesale inventories data at 10 a.m. ET. Wall Street is anticipating growth of 0.7% after the prior month's increase of 1.5%.

Shares of

Lululemon

(LULU) - Get Report

were up 9.2% to $60.80 in early trading after the athletic apparel retailer said third-quarter net income soared 82%. Lululemon exceeded Wall Street's expectations with per-share earnings of 20 cents a share on sales of $175.8 million.

Smithfield Foods

(SFD)

saw its stock advance 2.5% to $18.15 after the pork processor swung to a second-quarter profit of 86 cents a share on higher pork prices and sales increased 11.4% to nearly $3 billion. Analysts had projected a per-share profit of 56 cents a share on sales of $3.2 billion.

Dutch semiconductor equipment maker

ASML

(ASML) - Get Report

saw shares rise 5.2% to $37 ahead of Thursday's opening bell after the company said it expects fourth-quarter bookings to exceed €2 billion ($2.66 billion) on strong demand for lithography equipment.

In commodity markets, the January crude oil contract was up by 12 cents to trade at $88.40 a barrel. The most actively traded February gold contract traded 60 cents higher to $1,383.80 an ounce.

The dollar strengthened against a basket of currencies, with the dollar index up by 0.2%.The benchmark 10-year Treasury note strengthened 8/32, diluting the yield to 3.242%.

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--Written by Melinda Peer in New York

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Disclosure: TheStreet's editorial policy prohibits staff editors and reporters from holding positions in any individual stocks.

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