IBT Staff Reporter

Stock index futures edged higher on Thursday following a rally in Chinese equities and ahead of data expected to show a dip in jobless claims after a surprise increase in the prior period.

Stock index futures briefly turned negative on Thursday after weekly data showed an unexpected rise in first-time claims for jobless benefits.

The British tax office arrested seven people in London on Wednesday in a suspected 38 million pounds ($62.6 million) value-added tax fraud in the European market in carbon allowances, it said.

Shares in British oil services group Wellstream (WSML) fell sharply after it said its second half will be worse than expected, as funding constraints and oil price volatility force producers to delay contracts.

The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits unexpectedly rose last week, a government report showed on Thursday, as companies continued to cut payrolls amid uncertainty over the economic outlook.

China appears committed to stronger steps to contain swelling greenhouse gas emissions, the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said after meetings in Beijing, urging practical hopes of climate treaty negotiations.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shrugged off on Thursday the impact of any sanctions targeting Iran's gasoline imports and suggested it would soon be able to meet its own needs, Iranian media reported.

Chinese solar wafer manufacturer ReneSola is still expecting to make losses in the third quarter of the year despite announcing the launch of a new 150 megawatt project, chief executive officer Li Xianshou said.

PTT PCL, Thailand's top energy firm, said on Thursday it may import the first lot of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as early as the middle of 2011, earlier than previous indicated.

U.S. Apache Corp (APA) is to sign three oil and gas deals on Thursday worth $30 million for a total of 14 wells in three areas of Egypt's Western Desert, the Oil Ministry said in a statement.

Enviro Energy International Holdings, plans to drill up to five wells of coal-bed methane/shale gas in Western China this year, and five more in 2010, a top company official said on Thursday.

A proposal by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to oversee a greenhouse gas contract on a voluntary Chicago trading exchange shows the agency is staking out its territory before Congress decides which agencies should regulate the country's burgeoning carbon market.

Federal regulators and the state of Maine have signed an agreement to coordinate on the development of projects that generate power from the ebb and flow of the tides, marking the first such agreement on the technology for the U.S. East Coast.

Emerald Energy Ltd (EMEM) said on Thursday its well no.6 in the Capella field in Colombia encountered net potential hydrocarbon level much higher than the previously recorded levels in the field.

Switzerland sold its stake in its largest bank, UBS, for 5.5 billion Swiss francs ($5.1 billion), a source said on Thursday, making a profit from last year's rescue deal.

Sears Holding Corp reported a quarterly loss on Thursday instead of the profit Wall Street was expecting as the retailer struggled to cut costs to keep up with falling revenues, and its shares fell nearly 13 percent.

China's normally secretive Defense Ministry on Thursday launched a website (www.mod.gov.cn), in a new bid to allay overseas criticism over its military transparency and the build-up of its armed forces.

It just won't go away, this needling worry about the U.S. dollar losing its coveted top-dog status.

Oil prices eased toward $72 a barrel on Thursday, after rising more than 4 percent in the previous session, as optimism faded about the pace of demand recovery in the world's top consumer the United States.

The heads of Canada's Magna and Russian partner Sberbank will meet their General Motors counterpart on Thursday, a person close to the matter said, as decision time nears on the sale of GM's Opel business.

The heads of Canada's Magna and Russian partner Sberbank will meet their General Motors counterpart on Thursday, a person close to the matter said, as decision time nears on the sale of GM's Opel business.

A federal judge has ruled that Bank of America Corp cannot have a lawsuit by investors seeking to force it to buy back mortgages heard in federal court, saying he lacks jurisdiction to decide the case.

The Black Eyed Peas and Jason Mraz will shatter two records for longevity on the Billboard Hot 100 when the singles chart is released Thursday.

After 17 years of late night TV chat, Jay Leno says he's working harder than ever to fill his eagerly-anticipated new prime-time show with comedy.

Before Michael Jackson died, his brothers filmed a one-hour pilot for A&E that was supposed to include a reunion performance with Michael. But he never agreed to it, didn't do it, and died before it could be discussed again.

A stabilizing U.S. financial sector may have freed the White House to trim its 2009 budget deficit projection but the still-record-breaking figure will not make it easier to sell healthcare reform.

A coalition of U.S. state pension funds is supporting the private equity industry's opposition to new rules on takeovers of troubled lenders, the Financial Times reported on its website.

Sears Holding Corp reported a quarterly loss on Thursday as the retailer continues to suffer from the crash of the U.S. housing market.