Futures rise ahead of weekly jobless claims data

Aug 5 (Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures rose on Thursday before data showed fewer Americans filed for unemployment benefits, as investors turned to another busy day corporate earnings reports.

The Labor Department report, due at 8:30 a.m. ET, is expected to show initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell to 384,000 last week, from 400,000 the week before.

The benchmark S&P 500 (.SPX) closed just below a record high on Wednesday. It struggled to rise in August after six straight months of gains amid concerns over the pace of economic growth and as fears of higher inflation overshadowed a strong corporate earnings season.

Global stocks also retreated from historic highs after Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida, one of the main architects of the Fed’s new policy strategy, said on Wednesday that he believed that conditions for raising interest rates could be met by the end of 2022. read more

Earnings reports continued to pour in, with shares of Electronic Arts Inc (EA.O) rising 3.6% after forecasting adjusted sales for the current quarter above estimates. Competitors Take-Two (TTWO.O) and Activision Blizzard (ATVI.O) grew by around 1% each. Read more

Uber Technologies Inc (UBER.N) fell 4.1% after the rideshare and food delivery company reported increasing losses. Read more

As of 6:49 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 61 points, or 0.18%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 10.25 points, or 0.23%, and e-minis Nasdaq 100 were up 36.25 points, or 0.24%.

Of the 340 S&P 500 companies that have posted earnings so far, a record 87.6% has beaten earnings estimates, according to data from Refinitiv IBES.

Overall, analysts expect second quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies to jump 90.2% from a year ago.

Report by Shreyashi Sanyal in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni

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