French Flash Manufacturing PMI 49.4 50.3 49.8

French Flash Services PMI 50.2 51.2 51.0

Spanish Unemployment Rate 26.0% 26.1% 26.3%

German Flash Manufacturing PMI 51.5 51.6 51.1

German Flash Services PMI 52.3 53.8 53.7

FTSE100 comfortably higher in early deals as miners thrive

EUR Flash Manufacturing PMI 51.3 51.4 51.1

EUR Flash Services PMI 50.9 52.3 52.2

GBP CBI Industrial Order Expectations -4 10 9

FTSE100 makes firm gains midday with Lloyds in focus

Stock futures rebound; Ford, Microsoft in view

Oct. 24, 2013, 7:44 a.m. EDT

LONDON (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock futures pointed to a recovery on Wall Street on Thursday, spurred by encouraging Chinese manufacturing data, as investors look to earnings releases from Ford Motor Co., Microsoft Corp. and many others.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJZ3 +0.37% climbed 57 points, or 0.4%, to 15,408, while those for the S&P 500 index SPZ3 +0.29% gained 6.50 points, or 0.4%, to 1,748.30. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index NDZ3 +0.25% gained 10.75 points, or 0.3%, to 3,350.75.

The positive moves materialized after HSBC’s “flash” reading of October’s China manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) showed a rise to a seven-month high of 50.9, up from September’s final reading of 50.2. A level above 50 signals expansion. The upbeat data also helped lift stock markets in Europe, while Asian markets closed mixed.

The gains also came on the back of a weaker session on Wednesday, when the S&P 500 index SPX -0.47% fell from a record closing level, as investors assessed mixed results from U.S. corporations.

Earnings look set to be a highlight on Thursday, with results from Ford F +3.77% , Dow component Microsoft MSFT +0.39% and Amazon.com Inc AMZN +0.61% on the agenda.

Ford said it now expects full-year pretax profits to be higher than in 2012, improved from prior guidance, as it reported a rise in third-quarter revenue to $36 billion, from $32.1 billion a year earlier. Shares were up 3.9% premarket.

For Microsoft, reporting after the closing bell, analysts forecast earnings of 54 cents a share in the first quarter. Amazon, also out after the market closes, is expected to post a loss of 10 cents a share in the third quarter.

Also reporting Thursday, Colgate-Palmolive Co. CL -0.27% posted a 6% rise in third-quarter adjusted earnings per share, meeting analyst expectations of 73 cents.

Among notable movers premarket, Symantec Corp. SYMC -14.09% fell 12% after the software firm late Wednesday posted lower-than-expected results, lowered its full-year guidance and issued current-quarter guidance below analysts’ expectations.

USD Trade Balance -38.8B -39.4B -39.1B

USD Unemployment Claims 350K 343K 358K

USD Flash Manufacturing PMI 51.1 52.8 52.8

USD JOLTS Job Openings 3.88M 3.77M 3.69M

End-of-day Market Overview