Wall Street to open up on initial claims, dollar drop

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were poised for a higher open on Thursday after weekly jobless claims unexpectedly dipped and the dollar fell on the increasing belief that more government quantitative easing was on the horizon.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped to its lowest level since the July 10 week, the government said.

The data are a precursor for Friday's closely watched non-farm payroll report from the Labor Department, which is expected to show companies added 75,000 jobs in September.[ID:nN05187700]. The ADP Employer Services report said Wednesday that private payrolls fell by 39,000 in September.

"It seems to be helping. Claims were down 11,000. That may give some confidence heading into tomorrow, removing some of the question that the ADP report from yesterday had maybe brought up," said Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist at Banyan Partners LLC in New York.

"You see futures rising on the Dow and S&P. There may be sort of a quiet day ahead of us, but it's relatively good news."

Futures extended gains after the euro broke above the $1.4000 level as the dollar continued to weaken on concerns about additional quantitative easing, helping push up riskier assets, such as commodities.

"The dollar just keeps plummeting. Everybody is trying to play this quantitative easing idea, what are the central banks going to do. That certainly feels like part of it," said Kevin Kruszenski, head of listed trading at KeyBanc Capital Markets in Cleveland.

S&P 500 futures rose 5.8 points and were slightly above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures gained 48 points and Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 11.5 points.

Retailers that cater to teens saw strong same-store sales in September, with a late start to the back-to-school season, helping them beat estimates.

Abercrombie & Fitch Co jumped 7.7 percent to $41.56 and Aeropostale Inc climbed 4.2 percent to $25.35 in premarket trading.

PepsiCo Inc dipped 2 percent to $66.75 after it trimmed the top end of its full-year earnings forecast and reported a quarterly profit that met expectations.

Alcoa Inc is due to kick off the third-quarter earnings season after the closing bell. The U.S. aluminum group was expected to post a modest third-quarter profit, but the main focus will be on its forecast for rising metal prices, which would send earnings surging in the final quarter.

(Additional reporting by Ryan Vlastelica; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

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