A combination of positive earnings figures from major listed corporations and a falling number of new unemployment claims helped buoy U.S. stock index futures on Thursday morning. Initial jobless claims dropped 23,000 to 452,000 for the week ending on October 16. The four-week moving average came in at 458,000, down 4,250 from last week's revised average.
In addition, rising profits at EBay, Netflix, Xerox and Caterpillar showed that despite some macro-economic weakness, companies are still managing to build their businesses with newly lean operations.
However, growth may still fall short of the rate needed to reduce unemployment by a significant fraction.
Dow Jones Industrial Average index futures rose 37 points to 11,100 at 9:02 a.m. EST, while S&P 500 index futures climbed 4.4 points to 1,179.10.
Nasdaq 100 index futures gained 11.75 to 2,095.50.
The optimism was reflected overseas, as well; Nikkei 225 index futures climbed 40 points to 9,410 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index futures increased 114 points to 23,668 at 4:15 a.m. EST.
FTSE 100 index futures gained 41.5 points to 5,478.
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