U.S. stock futures are pointing higher in pre-market trading for Thursday, May 26. The Dow Futures are up 34.00 points to 17,851.0. The S&P 500 Futures are up 2.75 points to 2090.0. The Nasdaq Futures are higher at 4483.75 for a gain of 9.00. The Russell Futures are showing a gain of 2.40 points at 1142.2.                 .

In overnight trading in the Eastern Hemisphere, markets traded higher. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was at 16772.46 for a gain of 15.11 points or 0.09 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was at 20397.11 for a gain of 29.06 points or 0.14 percent. The Shanghai Composite in China was at 2822.44 for a gain of 7.36 points or 0.26 percent. India’s S&P BSE Sensex was at 26366.68 for a gain of 485.51 points or 1.88 percent. The Asia Dow was at 2641.53 for a gain of 22.28 points or 0.85 percent. In Europe, the FTSE 100 is higher at 6279.00 for a gain of 16.15 points or 0.26 percent. Germany’s DAX is higher at 10259.05 for a gain of 53.84 points or 0.53 percent. France’s CAC 40 is higher at 4502.62 for a gain of 20.98 points or 0.47 percent. The Stoxx Europe 600 is higher at 348.73 for a gain of 0.17 points or 0.05 percent. The Europe Dow is higher at 1576.83 for a gain of 5.49 points or 0.35 percent.

Thursday’s Factors and Events

On the economic calendar for Thursday is durable goods, jobless claims, Bloomberg’s Consumer Comfort Index, the Pending Home Sales Index, the Fed balance sheet and the money supply. Fed speeches are also scheduled from James Bullard and Jerome Powell.

Stocks actively trading in the pre-market include Yahoo, Archer Daniels, CenturyLink, Netflix, Facebook, Carnival, Transocean, Costco and Apple.

Costco and HP are both trading higher after mostly positive earnings reported Wednesday. On Wednesday, Costco was up 1.97 points or 1.38 percent at $144.54. HP was also higher Wednesday with a gain of 0.29 points or 2.43 percent, to close at $12.20.

Source: Costco and HP. Google Finance.

On Thursday the following companies will report earnings: Sears Holdings, Dollar General, Dollar Tree, Gamestop and Abercrombie & Fitch.

Wednesday’s Activity

 On Wednesday, stocks in the U.S. traded higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was higher at 17,851.51 for a gain of 145.46 points or 0.82 percent. The S&P 500 was also higher at 2,090.54 for a gain of 14.48 points or 0.70 percent. The Nasdaq Composite was higher for the day at 4894.89 for a gain of 33.84 points or 0.70 percent.

Other notable index closes included the small-cap Russell 2000, higher at 1141.02 for a gain of 5.72 points or 0.50 percent; the S&P 600 at 697.88 for a gain of 3.86 points or 0.56 percent; the S&P 400 Mid-Cap Index at 1481.20 for a gain of 9.71 points or 0.66 percent; the Russell 3000 at 1231.34 for a gain of 8.44 points or 0.69 percent; the Russell 1000 at 1157.12 for a gain of 8.11 points or 0.71 percent; and the Dow Jones U.S. Select Dividend Index at 587.68 for a loss of -2.94 points or -0.50 percent.