Wall Street trickles back from holiday

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Traders returning from the mid-week holiday will have plenty on their plate Thursday as they digest deal news and gear up for release of the government's closely watched employment report.

At 8 a.m. ET, futures were up slightly, as a comparison to fair value pointed to higher open for U.S. stocks. Financial markets were closed Wednesday for Independence Day.

Reports on weekly jobless claims and ISM services are due, but investors will be awaiting the closely watched June jobs report due on Friday.

In global markets, European stocks traded in choppy fashion ahead of interest rate decisions from the Bank of England and European Central Bank. The BOE is widely expected to raise rates, while the ECB is expected to leave them unchanged.

Chinese stocks tumbled more than 5 percent on concerns about a flood of new shares, but other Asian markets ended the session higher.

Investors will also have a chance to mull the filing of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, which announced plans late Tuesday for a $1.25 billion initial public offering. The filing disclosed the high-profile firm has $53.4 billion in assets under management and earned $1.11 billion in 2006.

David Kelly, economic advisor for Putnam Investments, said the KKR deal feeds into the general lift that markets have been getting from a rash of merger and acquisition news in recent weeks.

"Ultimately it's a measure of excitement about the stock market," he said. "There's a lot of private cash looking for homes and that's giving a lift to markets."

The lastest deal in the space also came late Tuesday, when private equity firm Blackstone Group (Charts) said it was buying Hilton Hotels (Charts, Fortune 500) in a deal valued at $26 billion.

In other corporate news, General Motors (Charts, Fortune 500) reported a 21 percent drop in U.S. sales in June. The sales report, which came after the close of trading, was much weaker than forecast and nearly gave import auto brands a majority of U.S. sales for the month.

Coca-Cola (Charts, Fortune 500) is evaluating whether to make a bid for Snapple, the iced tea division owned by British drinks company Cadbury Schweppes (Charts), according to an interview Coke CEO Neville Isdell gave to wire service Reuters.

Treasury prices fell in early trading, taking the yield on the 10-year note to 5.09 percent from 5.04 percent late Tuesday before the U.S. holiday. The dollar was lower against the euro but higher versus the yen.

Oil prices gained in early trading ahead of the 10:30 a.m. ET report on U.S. fuel inventories. U.S. light crude rose 40 cents to $71.81 a barrel in electronic trading.