NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - U.S. stocks tilted toward lower territory before the opening bell Thursday as oil prices continued to worry investors.

For details of Wednesday's session, click above

Early Thursday, Nasdaq and S&P futures were modestly lower after pointing higher earlier in the morning.

U.S. light crude futures showed a 14-cent gain to $41.64 a barrel, putting the expiring June contract within 21 cents of the intra-day record set Monday. Brent oil futures gained 16 cents to $38.06 a barrel in London.

Among Thursday's economic reports, the weekly report on jobless claims showed an unexpected rise in the number of people filing initial claims last week to 345,000 from a revised 333,000 the week before. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast that initial claims would slip to 326,000.

YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS Nikkei Stock Exchanges Options and Futures Europe or Create your own Manage alerts | What is this?

Other economic reports due Thursday include the index of leading economic indicators, due at 10 a.m. ET. The Conference Board measure of the future direction of the economy is expected to be up 0.2 percent for April after a 0.3 percent gain in March.

The Federal Reserve bank of Philadelphia releases its measure of manufacturing in its region about noon ET. The index is forecast to fall to 31.0 for May from 32.5 in April.

The Dow Jones industrial average couldn't hold its early gains Wednesday and ended with a 0.3 percent drop. The Nasdaq composite index was up less than a point (see chart for details).

Asian-Pacific stocks ended mostly lower Thursday, with Tokyo's Nikkei index down 1 percent. European markets pulled back in early trading. (Check the latest on world markets)

Treasury prices were slightly lower, with the 10-year note yield at 4.78 percent. The dollar gained against the yen and euro. Gold was higher.

Shares of Intuit (INTU: Research, Estimates) fell 7 percent in after-hours trading. The maker of accounting software posted higher-than-expected quarterly income, but projected a wider-than-forecast loss in the current quarter and said about 400 customers using its latest version of Turbo Tax inadvertently had prepayments of their 2004 taxestaken out of their checking accounts due to a design flaw.