U.S. stock futures turned slightly lower after data showed a smaller-than-expected increase in weekly jobless claims on Thursday and amid a set of mixed results started off the quarterly earnings season.

Jobless claims in the week ended April 4 rose 14,000 to 281,000 compared to the expected 285,000. Claims in the preceding week were revised down by 1,000 to 267,000.

At 10:00 a.m., wholesale inventories for February are expected to have increased 0.2% compared to the 0.3% increase in January. The consensus range is for inventories to be unchanged to 0.6% higher, according to data compiled by Econoday.

Alcoa ( AA ) unofficially started off the earnings season late Wednesday with a beat on earnings and a miss on sales. AA was lower by nearly 3% in recent premarket trade.

Other notable equities movers included social video games maker Zynga ( ZNGA ), off by over 10% after saying CEO Don Mattrick will leave the company and will be replaced by founder and chairman Mark Pincus who will return to the CEO role. Walgreens Boots Alliance ( WBA ) added 3% after adjusted fiscal Q2 earnings topped estimates, even as sales fell short.

U.S. PRE-MARKET INDICATORS

-Dow Jones Industrial down 0.07%

-S&P 500 futures down 0.12%

-Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.05%

GLOBAL SENTIMENT

Nikkei up 0.75%

Hang Seng up 2.70%

Shanghai Composite down 0.78%

FTSE-100 up 0.70%

DAX-30 up 0.43%

PRE-MARKET SECTOR WATCH

(+/-) Large cap tech: mixed

(+) Chip stocks: unchanged to higher

(+/-) Software stocks: unchanged

(+/-) Hardware stocks: mixed

(+/-) Internet stocks: mixed

(+/-) Drug stocks: mixed

(+) Financial stocks: unchanged to higher

(+/-) Retail stocks: mixed

(-) Industrial stocks: unchanged to lower

(+) Airlines: higher

(+/-) Autos: mixed

UPSIDE MOVERS

(+) PIR (+4.4%) Fiscal Q4 beats view; sales misses

(+) INFN (+5.0%) Offers $ 350 million in cash, stock for Sweden’s Transmode

(+) NVGN (+41.4%) Experimental drug kills melanoma cells

(+) EXEL (+13.7%) Gets fast-track designation for renal cell carcinoma treatment

(+) TASR (+4.7%) Receives order from City of London police department

(+) OPXA (+9.7%) Nets $ 12 million in rights offering

(+) AMCN (+7.8%) Gets Wi-Fi concession right on ordinary trains operated by Shanghai Railway Bureau

(+) INO (+7.7%) INO-3112 immunotherapy activates response in head and neck cancer patients

(+) WPCS (+35.1%) Wins $ 14.4 million in new contracts in March

(+) LB (+1.1%) March comparable store sales rise 9%, lifted by earlier Easter

(+) UAL (+2.8%) March traffic, capacity, load factor, decline

(+) DBVT (+3.9%) Gets breakthrough therapy designation for peanut allergy treatment

(+) LNKD (+1.5%) Buys online learning platform Lynda.com for $ 1.5 billion

DOWNSIDE MOVERS

(-) BBBY (-3.2%) Fiscal Q4 meets views

(-) COST (-1.0%) March comparable sales fall 2%

(-) MEMP (-5.1%) Shareholder to sell 4.7 million units

(-) SRC (-1.2%) Starts secondary offering of 20 million shares

(-) SHPG (-1.9%) Alagille Syndrome treatment fails to meet endpoints

(-) GPT (-1.0%) Initiates sale of 7 million shares

(-) CLF (-4.6%) BMO Capital downgrades to underperform vs market perform; PT slashed