Wall Street in wait-and-see mode

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- U.S. stock futures barely budged Thursday morning as Wall Street continues to recover from the two-day suspension of trading due to Superstorm Sandy.

Ahead of the opening bell, investors will have a bevy of corporate and economic news to parse through.

Reports due before the start of trade Thursday include planned job cuts, private sector jobs and initial unemployment claims, in a prelude to the government's monthly jobs report on Friday.

Outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported the number of planned job cuts surged to a five-month high of 47,724 in October. That was a 41% increase over the prior month.

Payroll processor ADP will release private-sector jobs data at 8:15 a.m. ET. The report is expected to show gains of 143,000 jobs in October, according to a survey of analysts by Briefing.com. Shortly afterward, the weekly initial jobless claims report is expected to total 375,000 new filings. That would be an increase from 369,000 in the prior week.

The other reports on tap for Thursday span a wide variety of economic sectors: nonfarm productivity, manufacturing, consumer confidence, construction spending and auto sales.

The corporate world is also busy Thursday. Exxon Mobil (XOM, Fortune 500)reported better-than-expected earnings, while AIG (AIG, Fortune 500) Starbucks (SBUX, Fortune 500), and LinkedIn (LNKD) are among the firms due to report after the closing bell.

U.S. stocks ended a weak month on a mixed note Wednesday, the first day of trading after the two-day Sandy-related closure.

Fear & Greed Index

Companies: Netflix (NFLX) shares retreated 1.6% in premarket trade, after a massive 14% runup Wednesday. The gains came after famed corporate raider Carl Icahn disclosed he bought a 10% stake in Netflix, and strongly hinted he'd like a larger company to buy the streaming video and DVD service.

Japan-based Panasonic (PC) released an earnings report Thursday that was full of bad news. The electronics company posted a loss, dramatically lowered its forecast for the year, and announced it will suspend its dividend. Business conditions are expected to become "much more severe."

Also in Japan, Sony (SNE) reported a narrower loss for its fiscal second quarter and reaffirmed its full-year forecast for a swing to profit. But its U.S.-traded stock was still down 1.7% premarket.

Shares of Visa (V, Fortune 500) gained 3.3% in premarket trade after its Wednesday earnings report topped analysts' estimates. Sirius (SIRI) also gained in premarket trade after the satellite radio company reported its new subscriber sign-ups were strong last quarter.

Pfizer (PFE, Fortune 500) slipped 1.5% after it reported quarterly revenue that fell far below analysts' estimates.

World Markets: European stocks all ticked slightly higher in midday trade Thursday. Britain's FTSE 100 was up about 0.6%, while the DAX in Germany and France's CAC 40 each added 0.5%.

Asian markets closed higher. The Shanghai Composite had the strongest gains, up 1.7%, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong jumped 0.8%, and Japan's Nikkei rose 0.2%.

China's government reported earlier in the day that its official purchasing manager's index jumped to 50.2 in October, from 49.8 the previous month. Any reading above 50 indicates that factory conditions are improving in the manufacturing sector.

Currencies and commodities: The dollar fell versus the British pound and the Japanese yen, and it fell against the euro.

Oil for December delivery rose 0.2% to trade at $86.39 a barrel.

Gold futures for December delivery jumped 0.4%, to $1,725.80 an ounce.

Bonds: The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury edged lower, pushing the yield up to 1.7% from 1.69% late Wednesday.

First Published: November 1, 2012: 6:11 AM ET

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