Futures Gained Ahead of Weekly Jobless Claims. Stocks to Watch: ACN, AAPL, BIDU, BAC, XOM, and JMBA

Published on Thursday, 26 August 2010 08:15 Written by Christopher Lynn

New York, August 26^th (TradersHuddle.com) – Stock futures edged higher, following European markets higher and on the back of yesterday’s reversal. Futures held steady ahead of weekly jobless claims data.

Overseas European stocks advanced on strong earnings results, after hitting a five-week low in the previous session. And Asian stocks ended mixed.

On economic news, the Labor Department's will release weekly claims for jobless benefits at 8:30 am. Economists expect claims to drop to 490,000 from last week's dismal number of 500,000.

In the energy complex, natural gas will be in focus after yesterday’s dip below $4 per MMBTU and as the Energy Information Administration will be out with its weekly report on natural gas inventories at 10:30 am.

Today’s stocks to watch: Accenture (NYSE:ACN), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU), Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM), Jamba (NASDAQ:JMBA).

Accenture (NYSE:ACN), the provider of management and technology consulting services, was flat in pre-market trading after Kaufman Brothers lowered their target price to $34 from $37 at Kaufman Bros. The firm believes there is a risk of sluggish growth and price deflation, they note sluggish demand backdrop in Europe, weakness in the public sector vertical, hints from a variety of vendors (including SAP and IBM) that big-deal demand began to stall in the June time frame, sluggish bookings growth last quarter and uninspiring numbers out of Hewlett-Packard and IBM.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), the maker of iPhones and iPads, gained 1.23% yesterday as the stock reversed and found support around the $238 level. This morning analysts at Kaufman speculate the Apple event scheduled for September 1^st, will likely be about the iPods and iTunes capabilities, and not about the new Apple TV. They believe that Apple will discuss the new features in iTunes and present the iPods ahead of the holiday season; they also speculate that the iPod nano, according to some of their supply chain check may be getting a significant re-design.

Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU), the largest Chinese Internet search engine, gained 1.24% in yesterday session, as the stock reversed from the $77 area, which acted as support. Technically Baidu’s price action set a pivot that can be used to test a bounce to fill the gap, with a possible move towards the next resistance area at the $82 per share level.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), the largest U.S. lender, gained 0.36% in pre-market trading, and will likely see some volatility in today session along the financial sector, as market participants will react to the Labor Department’s release of its weekly jobless claims report. Bank of America has calculated support and resistance at $12.75 and $14.65, respectively. The $12.75 level should act as resistance as yesterday’s price action left the stock at $12.66.

Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM), the largest U.S. energy producer, was slightly higher in pre-market trading as crude oil advanced for the second day as bargain hunters stepped in the equity markets and the greenback weakened. Crude oil prices climbed as much as 1.5% in early electronic trading.

Jamba (NASDAQ:JMBA), the owner of the Jamba Juice chain, was initiated with Outperform at Northland Securities and a target price of $2.50