U.S. futures mixed ahead of jobs, housing data

NEW YORK — U.S. stock futures were mixed Thursday after the latest jobs report showed that the number of people seeking unemployment benefits dipped last week.

The decline was not sizeable, however, and there is little indication that employers have accelerated hiring.

Dow Jones industrial average futures gained 4 points to 12,767. Standard & Poor’s 500 futures rose half a point to 1,351.20 and Nasdaq futures slipped 0.75 points to 2,616.50.

Weekly applications for unemployment aid declined by 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 387,000, the Labor Department said. That’s down from an upwardly revised 389,000.

The four-week average, a less volatile measure, rose for the fourth straight week, to 386,250. It’s the highest level since December.

The jobs report comes a day after the Federal Reserve indicated that the unemployment picture is unlikely to improve for the rest of the year and warned that problems in Europe are a viable threat to the U.S. economy.

In Luxembourg, European finance ministers are meeting Thursday to figure out the best way to deal with Greece and potentially craft a bailout for Spain’s banks, which have been left in tatters after the country’s housing market imploded.

An announcement is expected Thursday from Spain on how much money it will need to rescue the banks, even as borrowing costs for the country soar.

In a debt auction Thursday sold $765 million in five-year bonds at an average interest rate of 6.07 percent. That is up from up from 5.4 percent in the last such auction just two weeks ago.

Nearly half of the nations in the European Union, a huge market for U.S. exports, are again in recession.

That is part of the reason that businesses are losing confidence about the economy and remain slow to hire.

Fewer businesses are placing orders at factories and a measure of investment spending by companies has dropped for two months.

Earlier this month, the government reported that U.S. factories produced less in May than April, as automakers cut back on output for the first time in six months.

That can affect consumer spending, which drives about 70 percent of the U.S. economy.

Later Thursday, the National Association of Realtors is expected to report that sales of previously occupied homes likely slipped a bit in May.

The consensus view of economists was that sales dipped 0.9 percent in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.58 million units, according to a survey by FactSet. The report will be released at 10 a.m. Eastern time.

Sales are well below the 6 million-a-year annual pace that is considered healthy.

Before the market opened, ConAgra Foods Inc. reported a loss for its fiscal fourth quarter, weighed down by a charge related to pension accounting changes. But its adjusted earnings and revenue topped Wall Street’s expectations as did its fiscal 2013 earnings forecast.

ConAgra’s shares gained 20 cents to $24.80 in premarket trading.