US stock futures are mostly flat this morning, as investors are awaiting jobless claims data. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 4 points to 15,436.00 and S&P 500 index futures rose 1.10 points to 1,676.70. Nasdaq 100 futures fell 2 points to 3,077.25. US stocks closed higher on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining 0.12% to 15,470.52, the S&P 500 index rising 0.28% to 1,680.91 and the Nasdaq 100 index surging 0.32% to 3,610.00. Data on weekly jobless claims will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET, while the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index will be released at 9:45 a.m. ET. The general conditions index of the Philadelphia Fed's Business Outlook Survey for July and the Conference Board's index of leading indicators for June will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET. The EIA weekly report on natural gas stocks will be released at 10:30 a.m. ET. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is expected to testify before the Senate Banking Committee at 10:30 a.m. ET. International Business Machines (NYSE:

) is projected to report its Q3 earnings at $0.75 per share on revenue of $11.00 billion. European markets were mostly higher today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index rose 0.23%, London's FTSE 100 index gained 0.37%, French CAC 40 Index surged 0.36% and German DAX 30 index fell 0.03%. Asian markets ended mostly higher, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rising 1.32%, China's Shanghai Composite dropping 1.05% and Australia's ASX/S&P500 rising 0.21%. Hong Kong's Heng Seng Index declined 0.12% and India's Sensex gained 0.98%.