US stocks head for moderately higher open

By TIM PARADIS
AP Business Writer
Published: July 10, 2008

NEW YORK (AP) _ U.S. stocks headed for a moderately higher open Thursday as investors awaited a weekly government report on unemployment claims and reports from retailers on their June sales.

The reports could offer insight into how the economy is faring and perhaps help shore up sentiment following several volatile sessions. Stocks tumbled Wednesday amid concerns about the financial sector, leaving the major indexes in bear market territory — down more than 20 percent from their October highs.

Investors will be looking to a Labor Department report due before the opening bell that is expected to show that the number of workers seeking unemployment benefits fell last week after rising to the highest level since late March. Wall Street economists surveyed by Thomson/IFR forecast that new claims will have dropped to 399,000.

Retailers’ monthly reports on same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, could show the degree to which companies benefited from the U.S. government’s stimulus checks that were designed to give a boost to the economy.

A hesitant consumer is a concern for Wall Street as consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity.

A day after the Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 230 points, Dow futures rose 21, or 0.19 percent, to 11,170. Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures rose 2.60, or 0.21 percent, to 1,250.50, while Nasdaq 100 index futures advanced 4.25, or 0.23 percent, to 1,835.75.

Bond prices edged lower as investors retreated from the safety of government debt. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 3.83 percent from 3.82 percent late Wednesday. The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices rose.

Light, sweet crude rose 25 cents to $136.30 per barrel in premarket electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In corporate news, Costco Wholesale Corp. said same-store sales rose 9 percent in June including sales of gasoline. Wall Street had expected the warehouse club operator to post growth of 8.5 percent; Costco has been a beneficiary of consumers’ search for ways to help their strained household budgets.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average rose 0.12 percent. In morning trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 1.52 percent, Germany’s DAX index declined 0.89 percent, and France’s CAC-40 fell 1.65 percent.