US stock-index futures dropped on Thursday after a government report showed that intial claims jumped 27,000 to 412,000 in the latest week.
At 8:39 am ET, the S&P 500 futures fell 5.10 points to 1,303.60. The Dow Jones Industrial average futures decreased 44 points to 12,155. The Nasdaq Composite futures dropped 13.50 points to 2,295.
A release by Department of Labor on Thursday showed number of Americans filing first- time claims for unemployment benefits jumped 27,000 to 412,000 in the week ending April 9. Economists expected jobless claims to drop to 380,000. The four-week average of seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims, a less volatile gauge, increased 5,500 to 395,750. Continuing claims for the week ending April 2 fell 58,000 to 3.68 million.
Supervalu Inc. (NYSE: SVU) said Thursday that its fiscal fourth-quarter profit fell to $95 million, or 44 cents a share, from $97 million, or 46 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue declined to $8.66 billion from $9.21 billion.
Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), owner of the world's most-popular online search engine, is scheduled to release first quarter earnings after the closing bell on Thursday.Analysts, on average, expect the company to report earnings of $8.13 per share on revenue of $6.44 billion. In the year-ago quarter, the company reported earnings of $6.76 per share on revenue of $5.06 billion.
European stocks retreated in afternoon trade. At 13:18 pm London Time, the UK FTSE fell 42.89 points, or 0.71%, to 5,967.55. The German DAX and French CAC decreased 0.63% and 0.94% respectively.
Asian stocks finished mixed. The Nikkei 225 rose 12.74 points, or 0.13%, to 9,653.92. The Hang Seng index of Hong Kong declined 121.03 points, or 0.50%, to 24,014.
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