IBT Staff Reporter

Stock index futures edged higher on Thursday ahead of data on the jobs market and producer prices, while a rise in Italian borrowing costs could cap gains in equities and pressure other risk assets lower.

The disappointing performance of the U.S. labor market in March shows it is too early to conclude the economy is out of the woods, despite months of encouraging economic data, New York Federal Reserve Bank president William Dudley said on Thursday.

Stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Thursday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.55 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.42 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.59 percent at 3:34 a.m. EDT (0734 GMT).

Stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Thursday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.55 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.42 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.59 percent at 3:34 a.m. EDT (0734 GMT).

Groupon Inc, the online coupon company that floated just months ago in the strongest IPO in years, has had recurring accounting problems that critics say show a need for more financial sophistication on its board.

Less than a fortnight into his job as CEO, Kazuo Hirai on Thursday sketched out a revival strategy for Sony Corp built around mobile electronics - phones, games and cameras - and a medical business with annual sales of $1.2 billion.

Japan's government stuck to its assessment that the economy is slowly recovering on Thursday but raised its view on exports, saying overseas shipments are showing signs of stabilizing on a moderate pickup in the United States and some return in Asian demand.

Less than a fortnight into his job as CEO, Kazuo Hirai on Thursday sketched out a revival strategy for Sony Corp built around mobile electronics - phones, games and cameras - and a medical business with annual sales of $1.2 billion.

The World Bank cut its forecast for China's 2012 economic growth to 8.2 percent on Thursday and said a rebound might not begin before the third quarter of the year as slack foreign demand and a government-induced real estate slowdown restrain a recovery.

Emboldened energy market regulators are mounting an aggressive new campaign to stamp out a once-common trading practice that crosses physical and paper markets, unnerving traders who fear a backlash over years-old deals.

Chen Lifeng's dress-making company survived the global financial crisis yet may fall victim to today's milder economic slowdown, one that China deems necessary to secure its future growth.

U.S. economic activity kept growing moderately in the late winter months but rising energy prices were beginning to worry manufacturers and retailers across the country, the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday.

The trustee liquidating MF Global's brokerage will ask a bankruptcy court on Thursday to release $685 million to former MF Global customers, a plan already introduced in court filings that has been criticized as neglecting affiliates of the failed firm.

U.S. securities regulators are preparing to announce that Goldman Sachs will pay $22 million to settle allegations the bank did not have adequate policies to prevent research from being passed inappropriately to preferred clients, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

The cybersecurity community raked Apple Inc over the coals on Wednesday, saying the company had dragged its heels on eradicating malware that experts say may have infected up to 600,000 Macintosh computers and can be used to ferret out sensitive user information.

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - Brian Farnham, editor in chief of AOL's hyper-local Patch venture, has resigned.

Microsoft Corp said on Wednesday it won a ruling in a Seattle court effectively preventing phone company Motorola Mobility from immediately obtaining an injunction in Germany that could stop Microsoft from selling its Xbox and other software products there, due to a patent disagreement.

North Korea is poised to launch its first satellite into orbit; the U.S. says it is a missile test in disguise. And tensions in northeast Asia are high as the North, an impoverished but nuclear-armed nation, engages in saber-rattling ahead of the launch.

Bank of America Corp's chief information officer is leaving the company and will be replaced by a consumer banking executive, the bank said on Tuesday.

Two proxy advisory firms are backing a shareholder proposal to split the roles of chairman and chief executive at Wells Fargo & Co , putting pressure on another U.S. bank to revamp its leadership structure.

Two proxy advisory firms are backing a shareholder proposal to split the roles of chairman and chief executive at Wells Fargo & Co , putting pressure on another U.S. bank to revamp its leadership structure.

The options market is not expecting a wild ride for shares of Google Inc following the results from the Internet search giant on Thursday, but it is leaving investors vulnerable to surprises.

Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG, in a letter to Illumina Inc shareholders, called its sweetened $51-a-share offer for the maker of genetic analysis equipment a more than reasonable starting point for negotiations.

The group behind the viral Kony 2012 video that drew world attention to Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony tipped off Ugandan forces in 2009 to the whereabouts of a former child soldier wanted by the Kampala government, according to a classified U.S. cable published by Wikileaks.

North American oil and gas companies are trying to take the sting out of low natural gas prices by using it instead of costlier diesel fuel to drive their drilling rigs.

An encouraging start to earnings season helped stocks rebound on Wednesday from five days of losses that pushed the S&P 500 below a key technical level.

Boeing Co on Wednesday put some finishing touches on a make-over of its popular 737 aircraft as the U.S. planemaker battles with European arch-rival Airbus to deliver fuel savings to airlines hammered by near-record oil prices.

Materials of Nokia's new flagship model smartphone, the Lumia 900, cost $209, some 46 percent of its retail price, with the Finnish firm saving on processor and memory cost, teardown analysis of research firm IHS iSuppli showed on Wednesday.

Lawmakers in Washington state passed supplemental operating and capital budgets on Wednesday that they say will preserve funding for education and launch about $1 billion in construction projects.