With oil sliding further, U.S. stock futures were mildly higher as investors also contemplated Verizon's potential bid for Alltel and awaited major retailers results.On Wednesday, U.S. stocks were mixed on a bag of mixed news. Despite Moody's threatening to downgrade bond insurers, there was positive data from the service sector and oil kept its recent lower prices. The Dow industrials fell 12 points, or 0.10%, the S&P 500 was essentially flat with half a point decline, or 0.03%, and the Nasdaq composite actually ended 22 points, or 0.91%, higher.
Not much economic data is due today, except for the weekly initial jobless claims, but major retailers will report individual sales and comparative sales. Many investors will look to the report to get an indications of the state of the American consumer.
Meanwhile, oil dipped below $122 a barrel overnight and is holding above $122 now.
And as Europe also grapples with high oil prices, inflationary pressures and slowing growth, the Bank of England has already announced it's holding rates steady and Europe's Central Bank is also expected to do the same.
In corporate news, the major news comes from Verizon Wireless, jointly owned by Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE: VOD). Verizon is apparently in talks to acquire rival Alltel for a possible $27 billion according to The Wall Street Journal. The merger would create an 80 million subscriber telecom giant.
Meanwhile, France Telecom also said Thursday it had started talks of a $42 billion takeover bid for TeliaSonera. That would create the world's fourth-largest telecommunications operator.
Already reporting sales this morning is warehouse club operator Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ: COST), which said Thursday May same-store sales rose 9%, beating Wall Street expectations of a 6.9% increase. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) reported a gain of 3.9% at same-store sales, excluding the impact of fuel sales. That was more than double the 1.6% same-store gain expected by Thomson Reuters analysts.
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