Stock futures higher after jobs data, retail sales

NEW YORK — Stocks are looking to break a four-day losing streak Thursday after the latest reading on the jobs market and mixed retail sales reports.

Stock futures had been rising in early trading, following overseas markets higher, and held on to most of their gains after the Labor Department said the number of people filing for unemployment claims fell last week by 4,000 to 570,000. However, the market had been expecting a bigger drop to 560,000. The number of people continuing to receive benefits rose.

The report comes one day before the government’s tally on August job losses — the month’s most telling piece of economic data. In July, job losses slowed and the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell. Investors are eager to see those trends continue.

The market is also sifting through a number of sales reports from retailers. Overall, sales are still weak, but many companies, including Target Corp., Costco Wholesale Corp. and Limited Brands Inc., beat expectations.

The rise in stock futures comes after four days of losses in the stock market, driven by concerns that the economy is not healing fast enough, and that a six-month run-up in stocks had gone too far.

Reports on housing and manufacturing have shown improvement, but unemployment, and the resulting clampdown on consumer spending, has left investors wary.

Ahead of the market’s open, Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 38, or 0.4 percent, to 9,315, after being up about 67 points prior to the jobs data. Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures rose 5.40, or 0.5 percent, to 999.60, while Nasdaq 100 index futures rose 9, or 0.6 percent, to 1,602.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average fell 0.6 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index jumped 1.2 percent. In afternoon trading in Europe, Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.2 percent, Germany’s DAX index rose 0.2 percent, and France’s CAC-40 inched up 0.1 percent.

Bond prices fell in early trading. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 3.34 percent from 3.31 percent late Wednesday.

Later Thursday morning, investors will get a report on the health of the services industry. Analysts are expecting the Institute for Supply Management’s service index to come in at 48 in August, up from 46.4 in July. Any reading below 50 indicates the service sector is shrinking.

Earlier this week, ISM’s survey on manufacturing activity showed growth in that industry for the first time since January 2008. But that report did little to spark buying interest, and instead, investors sent the major indexes down about 2 percent.

A disappointing private sector report on unemployment, combined with a less-than-expected rise in factory orders, gave investors few reasons to buy stocks Wednesday, leaving the major indexes with modest losses.

The Dow Jones industrials have lost 300 points, or 3.1 percent, over four days. Still, even with the losses, stocks have only given up about two weeks’ worth of gains. Analysts say the dearth of market participants going in to the long Labor Day weekend has added to the market’s choppiness.

The dollar fell against other major currencies, while gold prices extended their recent climb higher.

Oil prices rose 43 cents to $68.48 a barrel in premarket trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.