May 31, 2012-Stocks Flat on Weak US Jobless Data

After falling sharply in the previous session, stocks may regain some ground in early trading on Thursday. The major index futures are currently pointing to a modestly higher open for the markets, with the Dow futures up by 18 points. The futures had been pointing to a more substantial rebound earlier in the morning but have significantly pared their gains following the release of a disappointing batch of economic data. Adding to recent concerns about the sluggish labor market, payroll processor Automatic Data Processing (ADP) released a report showing weaker than expected private sector job growth in the month of May. ADP said private sector employment rose by 133,000 jobs in May following a downwardly revised increase of 113,000 jobs in April. Economists had expected an increase of about 154,000 jobs compared to the addition of 119,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month. A separate report from the Labor Department showed that initial jobless claims rose to 383,000 in the week ended May 26th from the previous week's revised figure of 373,000. Jobless claims had been expected to come in unchanged at the 370,000 originally reported for the previous week.