Wall St to open slightly higher after 2-day fall

New York - US stocks were set to open modestly higher on Thursday, in the wake of two days of declines on the S&P 500, after higher-than-expected initial jobless claims figures and ahead of a report on factory orders.

Futures trimmed gains after data showed initial jobless claims rose to 320 000 in the latest week, above the 295 000 estimate and 313 000 in the prior week.

"That's a bit of an uptick because we've been pretty consistently in the upper 200 000 range," said Peter Jankovskis, co-chief investment officer at OakBrook Investments LLC in Lisle, Illinois.