Futures Promise Solid Thursday

Nearly all global stock markets are rising Thursday and U.S. stock futures are firmly in positive territory.

Ahead of the opening bell, futures for the Dow Jones gained 89 points, or 0.5%, to 16,911, futures for the S&P 500 picked up 14.75 points, or 0.7%, to 1,998.75, and futures for the NASDAQ advanced 36.5 points, or 0.8%, to 4,363.

Netflix stock is declining by about 4% pre-market after the company reported sluggish U.S. growth in the third-quarter.

Shares in Twitter could also take a dip Thursday as investors worry that CEO Jack Dorsey may be spreading himself too thin. Dorsey's other company, Square, announced plans for an initial public offering Wednesday. The mobile payments company will list shares in New York under the ticker symbol "SQ".

Unilever, which owns a range of well-known food and personal care brands, reported better-than-expected earnings and credited ice cream for driving sales.

Quarterly earnings reports will come out this morning from companies includingUnitedHealth, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Charles Schwab.

Another batch of companies will report after the market closes, including Mattel, Schlumberger and Wynn Resorts.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics will release this morning its consumer price index for September, which shows national inflation levels. Inflation has been lagging behind the Federal Reserve's target of 2%.

And weekly jobless claims data will be released by the U.S. Department of Labor.

At 10:30 a.m. ET, weekly data on natural gas inventories will come out, just before crude inventory data is released at 11 a.m.

Oil prices dipped 48 cents to $46.16 U.S. a barrel

Gold prices acquired $2.01 to $1,186.14 U.S. an ounce.