Stocks head for weak open

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- U.S. stock futures slumped after the government released disappointing data on gross domestic product and jobless claims before Thursday's opening bell.

Dow Jones industrial average (INDU), S&P 500 (SPX) and Nasdaq (COMP) futures were lower. Futures measure current index values against perceived future performance.

Exxon Mobil reported a 69% jump in first-quarter profit of $10.7 billion. Investors weren't all that impressed. Shares of Exxon Mobil (XOM, Fortune 500) barely budged.

Investors sent all three indexes to fresh multi-year highs Wednesday after Fed chief Ben Bernanke's first press conference.

But after three days of gains, equities could be at risk of losing momentum, said Joel Kruger, currency strategist at FXCM.

"We've seen a number of days of some pretty consistent equity buying," he said. But he added the multi-day rally "could be drifting away from fundamentals."

Economy: On Thursday, the Department of Commerce released its report on first-quarter gross domestic product, showing that GDP expanded at an annual rate of 1.8% during the first quarter.

That was a bit less than expected. Economists surveyed by CNNMoney had forecast an annual rate of growth of 2% during the first quarter.

The government also reported its weekly initial jobless claims data. The Labor Department reported that jobless claims totaled 429,000 last week.

The was more than expected. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com expected them to fall to 390,000. It also marked the third week in a row that jobless claims came in above the key 400,000 level.

Later in the morning, a report from the National Association of Realtors is expected to show a 1.7% rise in pending home sales for the month of March.

Companies:Procter & Gamble (PG, Fortune 500) reported an increase in quarterly net profits and sales but still disappointed investors. The company's stock slipped nearly 2% in premarket trading.

PepsiCo (PEP, Fortune 500) and Sprint Nextel (S, Fortune 500) also reported quarterly results before the market open. Pepsi's stock was flat in premarket trading while Sprint's stock rose about 3%.

After the closing bell, analysts expect Microsoft to post a quarterly profit of $4.8 billion, up 20% from a year earlier, on sales of $16.2 billion.

Exelon Corp., (EXC, Fortune 500) an electric utility, announced a merger with Constellation Energy (CEG, Fortune 500), a supplier of natural gas and other energy products. The deal is worth $7.9 billion.

Constellation's stock rose 7% in premarket trading.

World markets: European stocks rose in morning trading. Britain's FTSE 100 was down 0.2%, the DAX in Germany added 0.5% and France's CAC 40 advanced 0.5%.

Asian markets ended mixed. Japan's Nikkei index rallied 1.6%, but the Shanghai Composite dropped 1.3% and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong edged down 0.4%.

Currencies and commodities: The dollar fell against the euro, the Japanese yen and the British pound.

Oil for June delivery rose 20 cents to $112.96 a barrel.

Gold futures for June delivery rose $14.60 to $1,531.70 an ounce. Earlier, gold hit a new intraday record of $1,535.10 an ounce.

Bonds: The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury rose, pushing the yield down to 3.32% from 3.37% late Wednesday.