Wall Street is collating the rush of quarterly profit and loss reports as well as the fresh economic data to help determine how long the economy's slowdown might last. Some of the companies' forecasts underscored a worrisome notion that the economy might enter a more prolonged period of sluggishness than expected, while others signaled for some investors that Wall Street has been overly dour in its assessment of the business climate.

Stock futures came off their lows Thursday after a government report showed a sharp decline in the number of workers seeking unemployment benefits last week and following the reports from Ford and 3M, the maker of Scotch tape and Post-It notes.

The Labor Department's report that claims for unemployment benefits declined by 33,000 last week to 342,000 came as a surprise as economists had predicted claims would rise by 3,000.

Not all the economic news was welcome, however. Orders to factories for durable goods - big-ticket items like refrigerators, cars and computers - declined for a third straight month in March. This marks the longest sustained pullback since the 2001 recession.

But investors didn't appear to dwell on the news or even on the lackluster outlooks issued Amazon and Starbucks. Amazon predicted lower operating income than investors expected, while Starbucks warned that its second-quarter profit will likely fall short of Wall Street's expectations because of weak consumer spending.

Their forecasts, delivered after the closing bell Wednesday, initially touched off unease over the prospects for the consumer. With consumer spending accounting for about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity, a slowdown among retailers could portend further pain on Wall Street.

Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 9, or 0.07 percent, to 12,739. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures slipped 0.20, or 0.01 percent, to 1,378.30, while Nasdaq 100 index futures declined 2.25, or 0.12 percent, to 1,903.25.

Bond prices fell as stock futures came off their lows. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 3.78 percent from 3.74 percent late Wednesday.

The dollar rose against most other major currencies, while gold prices fell.

Light, sweet crude fell $1.41 to $116.89 in premarket electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In other corporate news, 3M Co. said it its first-quarter profit fell 28 percent from a year earlier, which benefited from a gain on the sale of the company's branded pharmaceuticals business in Europe.

PepsiCo Inc. said its first-quarter earnings rose 5 percent as improved revenue from its international division helped make up for increased commodity costs.

Motorola Inc. said its first-quarter loss widened as sales in its mobile unit fell 39 percent.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 0.28 percent. In afternoon trading, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 1.83 percent, Germany's DAX index declined 0.96 percent, and France's CAC-40 fell 0.78 percent.

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