Cisco shares jumped in the after-hours session, after it reported profits of $1.85 billion or $0.32 per share, on better than expected revenues of $9.8 billion. Cisco CEO John Chambers also said the company sees "across-the-board acceleration and sequential improvement" in all areas of its businesses.
Thursday's markets are also watching weekly jobless claims data and productivity and costs, released at 8:30 a.m., as well as factory orders at 10 a.m.
Chain stores report their monthly sales for January throughout the morning. Thomson Reuters forecasts sales gains of 2.5 percent, compared to a decline of 5.7 percent last January. Discount stores are expected to perform best, with a 4.6 percent gain, and teen apparel is likely to continue to fare poorly, with a 0.8 percent decline.
The Dow Wednesday slumped 26 points to 10,270 after moving in a narrow range throughout the day. The S&P 500 lost 6 to 1097. The Nasdaq though edged up just under 1 point to 2190.
"Today is another one of those days when I think Washington had a little bit of impact on the markets," said Jeffrey Kleintop, chief market strategist at LPL Financial.
He pointed to President Obama's comments Wednesday morning before Senate Democrats, where he encouraged them to act on health care and financial regulatory reform."The sectors that seem to be down most on the day seem to be more policy related," said Kleintop. The S&P financial sector was down 1.2 percent, while health care was down 1.2 percent. Tech was the best performer, up 0.3 percent
