NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - After a two-day selloff, U.S. stock indexes were poised to rebound Thursday as investors shrug off disappointing earnings data from the tech sector and take heart in strength in the overseas market.

U.S. stock futures were tentatively higher, indicating gains at the open ahead of the weekly initial jobless claims report and housing starts data. Investors will also be keeping a close eye on fourth quarter earnings from drug maker Pfizer and brokerage Merrill Lynch.

The expected gains in the U.S. market follow a rebound in Asia, with Tokyo's Nikkei bouncing back from Wednesday's sharp selloff that forced the market to close early. European markets, likewise, were trading higher.

"Oversold markets abroad have bounced back in the face of meager earnings reports from Apple and Bay," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Jefferies & Co. "If we take our hint from what overseas markets did, we'll see some strength."

He said economic reports will be monitored but earnings will overshadow oil prices and the economy in the near-term.

Initial claims are expected to rise to 315,000 in the latest week from 309,000, according to Briefing.com. Housing starts for December are expected to fall to an annual rate of 2.03 million from 2.12 million the previous month.

Oil prices are hovering close to $66 a barrel, after falling Wednesday as unusually warm weather curbed heating demand in the United States. But concerns linger over threats from Nigerian militants to halt shipments from the world's eighth biggest crude exporter have oil prices slightly higher Thursday.

The February light crude futures contract for NYMEX climbed 10 cents to $65.83 a barrel in electronic trading, while the March contract for Brent crude gained 37 cents to $64.56.

Hogan said rising oil prices are being overshadowed by earnings reports. While technology earnings have been lackluster at best in recent reports, Hogan said investors are likely to view disappointments from Apple and eBay as more company-specific issues than as representative of the entire tech sector. That should help the Nasdaq bounce back from Wednesday's decline.

In corporate news, Apple (Research) reported a solid quarter after the bell Wednesday, beating Wall Street's earnings expectations, but the company's lukewarm guidance could take a toll on its stock during the session.

eBay (Research) beat analysts' average forecast, but the outlook for 2006 remains below the average Wall Street estimates.

Advanced Micro Devices (Research) -- a keep competitor of Intel which disappointed earlier this week -- missed analysts' earnings expectations but did swing back into the black from losses in the comparable quarter a year earlier.

Walt Disney (Research) may be looking to acquire Pixar (Research) at a small premium to the company's current stock market value of $6.7 billion, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. The deal would be a stock transaction and make Pixar Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs the biggest individual shareholder in Disney, the newspaper reported.

Treasury prices turned lower, lifting the yield on the 10-year note to 4.36 percent from 4.33 percent late Thursday. The dollar was virtually unchanged against the yen but gained slightly against the euro.

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