U.S. equity futures are mixed but mostly flat ahead of today's jobless claims report at 8:30 a.m. ET, which analysts are expecting to show a decline in initial filings.
Coming off of yesterday's strong rally, the S&P 500 futures are off fractionally to 1386.80. Nasdaq 100 futures up fractionally to 2705.50 after trading as high as 2713 early this morning.
Global markets are also mixed, with Germany's DAX leading Eurozone indexes down 0.9 percent, though the U.K. FTSE 100 is higher for a second day in a row up 0.02 percent. Euro/dollar futures are also lower by 0.11 percent 1.322 after making a three-week high at 1.3266 earlier in the pre-market.
Commodity markets are showing modest gains, with crude-oil futures are up slightly at 104.06 while gold is higher by 0.51 percent, or 8.5 points. Silver and copper futures are the strongest of the metals, primarily because of strength in the Asian markets. Copper futures are higher by 0.8 percent to 3.736, while silver is up 1.38 percent to 30.845.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 0.79 percent in its second consecutive day of gains, while the Shanghai composite slipped 0.09 percent. Japan's Nikkei finished fractionally higher.
In one of the busiest days of earnings reports this season, both UPS and Exxon Mobil are down more than 1 percent after posting quarterly results a few minutes ago.
Apple is holding onto its huge gains from yesterday's session, currently up more than $2 to over $612.
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