Lower opening on tap after earnings news

Small-cap stocks are expected to open lower Thursday, in line with a decline in overnight values. The Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) was down about 0.9% in after-hours action, which would translate to an opening for the cash index near 702.00. However, stock index futures were starting to slice into overnight declines after Weekly Claims data came in better than expected, which could lessen the opening dip in small caps as well. The overnight dip was tied to soft earnings from headline names Amazon.com (Nasdaq:AMZN), Motorola (NYSE:MOT) and Starbucks (Nasdaq:SBUX).

Before the regular opening, the market received the first batch of economic data since Tuesday’s existing home sales, which could also provide some fuel for trading action in addition to the ongoing focus on earnings results. The weekly claims numbers were better than expected at 342,000 versus the forecast of 375,000, but the durable goods data came in at -0.3%, which was worse than the +0.1% estimate. In . . .

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