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.

Early reports have been mixed. 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 39, or 0.4 percent, to 9,316, after being up about 67 points prior to the jobs data. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 6, or 0.6 percent, to 1,000.20, while Nasdaq 100 index futures rose 9, or 0.6 percent, to 1,602.

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