US Stock Futures Point To Another Higher Opening; Data On Trade, Jobless Claims To Be Watched

Stock futures point to yet another strong run up the charts following Wednesday's strong payroll data, but investors will train their focus on trade and jobless claims numbers due out during the day, as well as Friday's employment report.

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.12 percent while futures on the S&P 500 were up 0.09 percent and those on the Nasdaq were up 0.1 percent. On Wednesday, the Dow rose 0.24 percent while the S&P 500 climbed 0.29 percent and the Nasdaq went up 0.2 percent.

Boise, Idaho-based Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) is scheduled to declare quarterly earnings after markets close, and the company is expected to report FY 2014 second-quarter EPS of 61 cents a share on revenue of $3.98 billion, compared with a loss of 28 cents a share on revenue of $2.08 billion in the year-ago period.

Data on international trade in February and jobless claims numbers for the week ended March 29 are both due at 8:30 a.m. EDT. The European Central Bank's monetary policy announcement -- due at 7:45 a.m. -- where the consensus leans toward a continuation of the ongoing interest rate scenario, could also influence U.S. markets.

In Europe, markets were marginally weaker ahead of the ECB's decision with the Stoxx Europe 600 index trading down 0.07 percent while the FTSE 100 was down 0.06 percent. Germany’s DAX-30 was down 0.06 percent while France's CAC-40 inched down 0.08 percent.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei-225 ended the day up 0.84 percent while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 inched up 0.12 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.18 percent while the Shanghai Composite fell 0.74 percent. South Korea’s Kospi was down 0.18 percent and India’s BSE Sensex ended the day down 0.19 percent.