Stock futures on Wall Street were pointing to a positive start when trading begins after some better-than-expected jobless claims data and no surprises from policy decisions in the UK and Europe.

Both the Bank of England and the European Central Bank (ECB) left their respective interest rates unchanged today, as expected. In the news conference following the ECB decision, central bank President Mario Draghi reiterated his stance that the "euro is irreversible".

Initial jobless claims rose by 4,000 last week to 367,000, up from an upwardly revised 363,000 the week before. The figure came in below the consensus estimate of 370,000.

"The fact that claims were more or less steady leads us to believe that the special factors surrounding Tropical Storm Isaac that propelled jobless claim applications higher during the weeks ending September 8 and 15 have passed through the data," said analyst Michael Gapen from Barclays Research.

All eyes will now be on tomorrow's monthly jobs report from the Labor Department. Non-farm payrolls are expected to have increased by 111,000 last month, up from the previous gain of 96,000. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate is forecast to rise to 8.2% from 8.1%.

Financials were putting in a decent performance in pre-market trade after the better-than-forecast economic data: Bank of America, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley were in demand.

Retailing peers Gap, Costco and Zumiez were gaining after their same-store sales figures for September beat analysts' estimates.

Related share prices
Costain Group (COST) share price
Bank of America Corp. (BAC) share price