Wall Street to open little changed on mixed earnings reports

By Tanya Agrawal

REUTERS - Wall Street was set to open little changed on Thursday, a day after the Dow and the S&P hit fresh record highs and as investors digested a mixed bag of earning reports.

Intel, a Dow component, reported late Wednesday that revenue growth slowed at its data center business. Shares of the world's largest chipmaker were down 3.2 percent at $34.56 in premarket trading.

Rival chipmaker Qualcomm, however, was up 7.7 percent at $60.11 after its quarterly results and forecast topped market estimates.

Biogen was up 5.2 percent at $276.01 after its results also beat expectations.

Economic data was upbeat. A report showed jobless claims unexpectedly fell last week, hitting a three-month low as the labor market continues to gather momentum.

In an expected move, the European Central Bank kept its interest rates and forward guidance unchanged.

"The market has been on steroids with the Street becoming more confident about future earnings," said Andre Bakhos, managing director at Janlyn Capital in Bernardsville, New Jersey.

Dow e-minis were down 28 points, or 0.15 percent, with 19,118 contracts changing hands by 8:33 a.m. ET (1233 GMT).

S&P 500 e-minis were down 1.75 points, or 0.08 percent, with 150,685 contracts traded.

Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 3.5 points, or 0.08 percent, on volume of 18,289 contracts.

"Today's pause is the market looking for more good earnings and it wouldn't surprise me to see a small pullback as the market digests the recent gains," Bakhos said.

The recent record-setting rally, which has pushed the S&P 500 up more than 6 percent this year, has come despite concerns about global instability including Britain's recent vote to leave the European Union.

Still, analysts have gradually been cutting their estimate for the decline in second-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies.

Wall Street gained on Wednesday as Microsoft's strong results marked the latest sign that earnings season may be less dour than feared.

But Intel's results could sour the mood.

Beside Intel, another drag on the Dow will be American Express, which was 2 percent lower after reporting results. GM was up 4.4 percent at $32.90 after the automaker raised its full-year earnings forecast.

Mining equipment maker Joy Global jumped 17.8 percent to $27.75 after Japan's Komatsu agreed to buy the company for about $3.7 billion.

AT&T, Chipotle, Visa and Starbucks among others are scheduled to report after the bell.

(Reporting by Tanya Agrawal; Editing by Savio D'Souza)