Futures Eking Down

U.S. stock futures were still negative early Thursday, following a big rally on Wednesday.

Ahead of the opening bell, futures for the Dow Jones Industrials faded 15 points, or 0.1%, to 17,819, while futures for the S&P 500 fell 2.25 points, or 0.1%, to 2,091.75. NASDAQ futures dipped three points, or 0.1%, to 4,436.50.

PepsiCo is the main company reporting earnings Thursday. The results are due out before the opening bell.

Shares in French dairy firm Danone are rising Thursday after the company announced a multi-billion dollar deal to buy WhiteWave Foods. The Denver-based firm makes dairy alternatives such as Silk, So Delicious and Alpro.

On the economic front, there's plenty of employment data coming through. The ADP Employment Change report for June is out this morning. Then, the U.S. Department of Labor is releasing the latest weekly data on unemployment claims.

The U.S. government will release its latest crude oil inventory data at 11 a.m. ET.

A report from last week showed U.S. oil inventories are starting to shrink. This marks a dramatic shift from just a few months ago when fears were rising that the U.S. was running out of room to store all the crude being pumped.

European markets are rebounding following steep drops on Wednesday. Most indexes are up by about 1.5%.

Asian markets ended the day with mixed results. The main indexes in Hong Kong and Korea posted gains while the Nikkei in Japan dropped by 0.7%.

Oil prices hiked 54 cents to $47.97 U.S. a barrel

Gold prices ditched $2.70 to $1,364.40 U.S. an ounce.