Stocks are directionless this morning ahead of jobless claims and ahead of tomorrow’s payrolls data.  DJIA and S&P futures are flat this morning in early indications. In Europe, the FTSE is up 0.3%, the DAX is up 0.3%, and the CAC is up 0.6%.  In Asia, Japan’s NIKKEI was up 1.7% and Hong Kong closed flat%.

Nymex WTI crude is lower around $82.20 per barrel; Gold is higher around $1,196.00 per ounce.

Treasury bond prices were soft with the yield on the 10-Year at 2.96% is and the yield on the 30-Year was 4.08%.

Thursday morning’s major media headline snapshot from Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg, and more is available here.

These are today’s top economic data:

• 8:30 AM EST Weekly Jobless Claims (est. 455K)
• 10:30 AM EST Weekly EIA Nat Gas Inventory
• 4:30 PM EST Foreign Central Bank Holdings of U.S. securities

At NOON EST we have Treasury Secretary Geithner, HHS Secretary Sebelius, and Labor Secretary Solis holding a press briefing on Social Security and Medicare.

Major earnings today are as follows: morning: ACM, AER, ATK, AVA, BCE, BZH, BVF, CVC, CAH, CSIQ, CBOE, CRZO, CI, CTB, DTV, EIX, ETH, FIG, FWLT, RAIL, H, KLIC, LAMR, LIZ, PCS, ZEUS, OWW, PDC, TDC, TDS, TDW, TWC, THS, USM, WWE, ZBRA; afternoon: ATVI, ALKS, APP, NILE, CPKI, CEC, CRAY, CROX, DPM, EM, ELX, HANS, KFT, LLNW, MCHP, MSTR, N, OPWV, PKI, PSA, RMD, RST, SGMS, SQNM, KNOT, VCLK, WTW.

Gordman Stores Inc. (GMAN) is coming public today with 5.4 million shares at $11 per share.

You can join our free daily email distribution list to hear more about dividend trends, analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader and active trader alerts, news on Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.

JON C. OGG

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.