NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Stock futures drifted early morning Thursday after a government report showed jobless claims fell from the previous week and oil resisted a fall below the $50 a barrel mark.

U.S. stock futures showed that the outlook for the opening bell was flat.

Weekly jobless claims fell to 330,000 in the week ended April 9 from a downwardly revised 340,000, the Labor Department said. The report was consistent with forecasts by economists surveyed by Briefing.com.

A reading on business inventories is also due Thursday. Analysts forecast inventories will rise 0.5 percent for February following a 0.9 percent gain in January.

Treasury prices turned higher following the report, and the dollar gained ground on the euro and the yen.

Oil prices were slightly higher early Thursday after reaching an overnight low of $50.06 for U.S. light crude. But the sell-off of the last two weeks could take oil prices below that $50 mark later in the day.

The May light crude contract gained 13 cents to $50.35 a barrel in electronic trading, while the May contract for Brent crude rose 36 cents to $50.84.

Still, Bill Adams, capital markets and energy strategist for LaSalle Futures, said reports such as one from International Energy Agency that China's oil demand growth was slowing was encouraging some observers that lower oil is ahead.

That in turn could bring investors who had been spooked by recent energy price records back into stocks, he said.

"It's all an emotional reaction," said Adams. "At least for a little while, stocks is where the safer money seems to be going."

Major markets in Asia closed lower Thursday. Major European markets also were lower in early trading.

Shares of Apple Computer (Research) were down slightly in European trading. The company posted better than forecast earnings Wednesday after the market close, but a more cautious than expected revenue target for the current period hit the stock.

By contrast, shares of chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (Research) climbed in European trading despite posting a quarterly loss rather than the narrow profit forecast by analysts. Investors cheered the announcement that the company would spin off its flash memory joint venture.

In other corporate news, an advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration made a surprise recommendation toallow use of silicone-filled breast implants from Mentor (Research) The advice came the day after the same panel came out against use of rival Inamed' (Research)s product .

The news lifted Mentor's stock more than 10 percent in after-hours trading.

For a more detailed look at the markets before the open, click here.