Futures Jump as Traders Eye Upbeat Jobs Data

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A round of stronger-than-expected jobs data, coupled with optimism global central banks will continue easing, pushed U.S. stock-index futures higher on Thursday.

Today's Markets

As of 8:36 a.m. ET, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures jumped 54 points to 14669, S&P 500 futures climbed 7.8 points to 1582 and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 18 points to 2842.

Global trading desks had a deluge of headlines to parse through on Thursday.

The Labor Department said new claims for unemployment benefits fell to 339,000 last week from an upwardly revised 355,000 the week prior. Claims were expected to fall to 351,000 from an initially reported 352,000. The jobs market has been in close focus on Wall Street recently after the March jobs report showed disappointing payroll growth.

Also helping to keep sentiment rosy has been continued speculation that the European Central Bank might cut interest rates to record lows when it meets next week, while a stream of disappointing data might also keep the Federal Reserve's foot firmly on the accelerator.

"Medium-term expectations of easy monetary policy to counter any cyclical slowdown also supported risk appetite," analysts at Barclays wrote to clients Thursday.

Meanwhile, several big-name companies reported earnings on the day.

ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) posted first-quarter profits of $2.12 a share, easily beating estimates of $2.05 a share. Revenues of $108.81 billion came in shy of estimates of $119.84 billion. Shares of the world’s biggest publicly-traded energy company traded slightly higher in the pre-market.

3M (NYSE:MMM) posted first-quarter profits of $1.61 a share on sales of $7.6 billion, missing expectations of earnings of $1.65 a share on $7.81 billion in revenues. United Parcel Service (NYSE:UPS) revealed first-quarter earnings of $1.04 a share, topping expectations by three cents. Sales of $13.43 billion came in just slightly shy of estimates of $13.46 billion.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) are due out after the closing bell in New York.

In commodities, the benchmark U.S. crude oil contract rose 24 cents, or 0.26%, to $91.67 a barrel. Wholesale New York Harbor gasoline climbed 0.6% to $2.764 a gallon. Gold rallied $23.40, or 1.7%, to $1,448 a troy ounce.