Investing.com - U.S. stock futures pointed to a moderately higher open on Thursday, as markets awaited the release of U.S. jobs data later in the day, after a positive U.S. private sector employment report on Wednesday.
Ahead of the open, the Dow 30 futures pointed to a 0.09% gain, S&P 500 futures signaled a 0.11% rise, while the Nasdaq 100 futures indicated a 0.13% increase.
Wednesday’s ADP nonfarm payrolls report showed that the U.S private sector added 281,000 jobs last month, outstripping expectations for an increase of 200,000. It was the largest increase since November 2012.
The insurance sector was expected to be in focus, as American International Group (NYSE:AIG) and Prudential Financial (NYSE:PRU), up 0.12% in pre-market trade, told regulators they could divest units and halt policy sales to avoid taking a bailout in a future crisis.
The two companies submitted the wind-down plans for the first time after being designated systemically risky by federal regulators last year.
Among tech stocks, Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) held steady, up 0.04% in extended trade, after the chipmaker said it bought Israel-based Wilocity in an effort to speed up introduction of new Wi-Fi products.
The company indicated that Wilocity’s fast gigabit wireless-data capabilities will be included in sample products being shipped to customers.
In similar news, Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM) Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff said the company is considering acquisitions of German software providers and system integrators in a move to reach $1 billion in local sales.
Elsewhere, Rackspace Hosting (NYSE:RAX) edged up 0.06% in extended trade after surging over 6% on Wednesday amid reports the cloud service provider may take itself private and was in talks with a private equity firm to fund the deal.
Across the Atlantic, European stock markets were higher. The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 rose 0.31%, France’s CAC 40 gained 0.40%, Germany's DAX climbed 0.48%, while Britain's FTSE 100 advanced 0.39%.
During the Asian trading session, Hong Kong's Hang Seng edged down 0.08%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.14%.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to publish data on the trade balance, as well as the weekly report on initial jobless claims, government data on nonfarm payrolls and the unemployment rate, one day ahead of schedule, before the fourth of July holiday.
In addition, the Institute of Supply Management was to publish a report service sector activity.