U.S. stock futures are mixed in pre-market trading for Thursday, May 12. The Dow Futures are up 70.00 points to 17,729.0. The S&P 500 Futures are up 10.75 points to 2,068.75. The Nasdaq Futures are up 23.50 points to 4,375.0. The Russell Futures are showing a gain of 5.90 points at 1,116.2.

In overnight trading in the Eastern Hemisphere, markets were slightly higher. Japan’s Nikkei was up 67.33 points or 0.41 percent to 16,646.34. The S&P BSE Sensex gained 193.20 points or 0.75 percent to 25,790.22 and India’s NSE Nifty gained 51.55 points or 0.66 percent to 7,900.40. In China, the Shanghai Composite was down -1.18 points or -0.04 percent to 2,835.86. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was down -139.83 points or -0.70 percent to 19,915.46. The Asia Dow was down -10.37 points to -0.39 percent at 2,629.59.

In Europe the FTSE 100 is up 6.90 points or 0.11 percent to 6,169.39. The FTSE 250 is up 29.64 points or 0.18 percent to 16,750.39. Germany’s DAX is gaining at 10,045.36, up 70.04 points or 0.70 percent. France’s CAC 40 is up 25.78 points or 0.60 percent to 4,342.45. The Europe Dow is up 5.86 points or 0.38 percent to 1,551.72.

Thursday’s Factors and Events

The market will still be recovering from retail industry losses Wednesday after retail stocks pushed the market lower. Corporate earnings are coming to an end as only Disney reported earnings this week from the Dow Jones Industrial Average so the market will be focused on economic indicators and specifically tomorrow’s retail sales report which is likely to fall below consensus of 0.9 percent.

On Thursday the market will see a number of speeches from Federal Reserve officials including Loretta Mester, Eric Rosengren and Esther George. Major market reports will include jobless claims, import and export prices and the Fed balance sheet.

Stocks actively trading pre-market include Citigroup, Amazon.com, General Electric, Wal-Mart and Disney.

Wednesday’s Activity

On Wednesday, retail stocks fell broadly as Disney, Macy’s and Staples led losses overall. Disney was down -4.31 points or -4.04 percent to $102.29 after the company reported earnings that missed expectations for both revenue and earnings per share.

Source: Disney. Google Finance.

Macy’s was also lower after a weak earnings report Wednesday. The stock fell -5.62 points or -15.18 percent to close at $31.38. Staples was also lower after the company ended its merger deal with Office Depot. The stock was down -1.90 points or -18.34 percent to $8.46.

The day’s retail losses led the market lower. On Wednesday the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost -216.82 points or -1.21 points to close at 17,711.53. The S&P 500 was also down, closing at 2,064.48 for a loss of -19.91 points or -0.96 percent. The Nasdaq Composite closed lower at 4,760.69 for a loss of -49.19 points or -1.02 percent.

Other notable index closes included the small-cap Russell 2000 closing lower at 1,114.73 for a loss of -14.10 points or -1.25 percent; the S&P 600 closing at 684.85 for a loss of -8.47 points or -1.22 percent; the Dow Jones Small-Cap Growth TSM Index closing at 6,827.79 for a loss of -94.38 points or -1.36 percent; the Dow Jones Small-Cap Value TSM closing at 8,150.81 for a loss of -70.87 points or -0.86 percent; the S&P 400 Mid-Cap Index closing at 1,455.07 for a loss of -14.66 points or -1.00 percent; the Russell 3000 which closed at 1,214.51 for a loss of -12.00 points or -0.98 percent; and the Dow Jones U.S. Select Dividend Index which closed at 587.68 for a loss of -2.94 points or -0.50 percent.