5 Things You Should Know Before the Stock Market Opens

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street Thursday after European leaders said a lot of nice things but failed to take concrete measures to prevent the region's credit crisis from deepening.

The EU leaders said they were committed to Greece remaining in the eurozone but again failed to arrive at a solid plan to prevent what is believed to be Greece's eventual exit from the euro currency.

European shares turned higher after trading lower for most of Thursday.

Asian stocks ended mixed. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 closed marginally higher Thursday at 8,563.38.

The economic calendar in the U.S. Thursday includes the weekly initial and continuing jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. EDT; the consensus estimate is for initial claims to fall to 365,000 from 370,000 last week.

Durable goods orders for April also will be released at 8:30 a.m. Economists see durable goods orders up 0.3%.

Hewlett-Packard(HPQ) , the computer and printer maker, reported above-consensus quarterly results on Wednesday and unveiled plans to cut 27,000 jobs, or 8% of its work force.

HP reported fiscal second-quarter non-GAAP earnings of 98 cents a share on revenue of $30.7 billion. Analysts were looking for earnings of 91 cents a share on revenue of $29.91 billion.

HP highlighted the performance of its storage business as 3Par continued to gain market share.

Costco Wholesale(COST) , the warehouse retailer, reported fiscal-third-quarter earnings Thursday of $386 million, or 88 cents a share, up from year-earlier profit of $324 million, or 73 cents.

Sales rose 8.2% to $21.85 billion. Including higher membership fees, total revenue rose 8% to $22.32 billion. Same-store sales in the quarter rose 5%.

Analysts were calling for earnings of 87 cents a share on revenue of $22.21 billion.

Goldman Sachs (GS) is scheduled Thursday to hold its annual shareholders meeting.

Shareholders will vote on board members, pay, lobbying spending, cumulative voting and on a new lead director. CEO Lloyd Blankfein may also face questions again about his tenure, according to Reuters.