NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Investors were looking ahead to the latest reading on fuel inventories for what it will mean about the direction of oil prices and stocks.

U.S. stock futures were mixed, with a comparison to fair value suggesting a slightly lower open for markets ahead of the 10:30 a.m. ET fuel inventory report.

Oil prices were mixed in early trading ahead of the weekly inventory report, continuing the decline seen in Wednesday trading that helped lift U.S. stocks. The April light crude futures contract for NYMEX fell 17 cents to $60.84 a barrel in electronic trading, while the April contract for Brent crude up 23 cents to $60.67.

"There should be nothing scary in the oil inventories," said David Kelly, economic advisor at Putnam Investments. "It should show huge inventories or close to huge inventories. If you want to be scared about oil, you have to come up with something out of the Middle East or Africa, like the growing violence in Iraq."

Kelly said he thinks the futures are lower more out of concerns about whether stocks can continue recent gains.

"The market has had a very good run in the last week or two," he said. "I think the investors are waiting to see if the markets are going to take a breather here."

Major markets in Asia closed higher Thursday, led by nearly a 2 percent gain in Japan's Nikkei, as the Bank of Japan said that a strong economy there could lead it to start raising interest rates away from the near zero-percent level of recent years. Major European markets were down in early trading.

The dollar was lower against the euro and the yen.

Treasury prices were lower, lifting the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 4.54 percent from 4.52 percent late Wednesday.

In corporate news, luxury home builder Toll Brothers (Research) reported a better-than-expected gain in earnings and gave full-year guidance above the consensus forecast. But the builder said that its new signed contracts were down 21 percent from a year ago and that there is now "more supply than demand" for new homes in some regions due to an end of speculative buying.

Shares were down in pre-market trading on Inet despite the strong earnings and guidance.

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