(RTTNews) - Stocks may see some additional weakness in early trading on Thursday after turning lower over the course of the previous session. Some of the downward momentum comes as investors respond to negative corporate news.

While Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO) reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue figures for the second quarter, disappointing sales guidance for the current quarter fueled a selling frenzy for the stock in after hours trading.

Additionally, Western Union Co. (WU) is likely to come under pressure after its quarterly results showed revenue that failed to meet expectations, even though its earnings per share figure beat what analysts had anticipated.

However, there were multiple quarterly reports that have helped to boost the value of their respective stocks, even though the strength was not carried to the broader markets.

Duke Energy Corp. (DUK) is indicating a higher open after reporting quarterly earnings that came in notably higher than analysts had expected. Furthermore, Visa (V) and MasterCard (MA) are showing advances after their quarterly releases.

Nonetheless, some negative sentiment has also been generated by a report from the Labor Department showing that first-time claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly jumped to their highest level in over twenty-six years in the week ended January 31st.

The report showed that initial jobless claims rose to 626,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 591,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to edge down to 580,000 from the 588,000 originally reported for the previous week.

Still, a number of traders are likely to be looking ahead to the release of the Labor Department’s monthly employment report on Friday. Economists anticipate a loss of 553,000 jobs and an unemployment rate of 7.4 percent.

In other economic news, a separate Labor Department showed that non-farm labor productivity jumped 3.2 percent in the fourth quarter following a revised 1.5 percent increase in the third quarter. While productivity increased by much more than expected, both output and hours worked showed notable declines.

The report also showed that the pace of unit labor cost growth slowed to 1.8 percent in the fourth quarter from a revised 2.6 percent in the previous quarter. Cost growth had been expected to come in at 2.8 percent.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department’s monthly report on factory orders is due out at 10 am ET and is expected to show a decline of 3.1 percent in factory orders for the month.

After showing a strong upward move in early trading on Wednesday, stocks ultimately closed lower as investors saw little support a sustained rally. The major averages all pulled back into negative territory, although the tech-heavy Nasdaq posted only a modest loss.

With Kraft (KFT) and Disney (DIS) leading the way lower after reporting disappointing quarterly results, the Dow suffered substantial weakness on the day, ending the session down more than 120 points. The blue chip index nearly offset the more than 140-point gain it posted on Tuesday.

Crude oil futures are currently edging down up $0.06 to $40.38 a barrel. The commodity came under selling pressure on Wednesday, when it fell $0.46 to $40.32 a barrel following the release of the weekly inventory data that showed that crude oil inventories rose by 7.2 million barrels.

Additionally, gold futures, which rose $9.70 to $902.20 an ounce in the previous session, are rising $18.50 to $920.70 an ounce.

Among the currencies, the U.S. dollar is trading at 89.86 yen compared to the 89.4285 yen it fetched at the close of New York trading on Wednesday. Against the euro, the dollar is valued at $1.279.

In overseas trading, most stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region fell Thursday on heightened worries that the recession may be deepening and after stocks on Wall Street ended sharply lower overnight.

The major European averages are also trading lower, with the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index declining 1.9 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively, while the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index is falling 1.3 percent.

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Posted in Categories: Economy, Eurozone, Japan, Releases, USA.

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