By Tanya Agrawal(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were mixed on Thursday as investors awaited retail sales and weekly jobless claims data, a day after the Dow moved back into positive territory for the year.* U.S. shares jumped on Wednesday, helped by gains in technology and financial stocks and optimism that Greece may be closer to reaching a deal with creditors.* The World Bank joined the International Monetary Fund in urging the U.S. Federal Reserve to hold off on a rate hike until next year to avoid worsening exchange rate volatility and crimping global growth.* Investors to keep a close eye on Thursday's data for signs of a recovery in the U.S. economy after growth came to a standstill in the first quarter.* U.S. retail sales are likely to have rebounded in May as consumers stepped up purchases of automobiles. The data is expected at 8:30 a.m. ET. Other data expected to be released on Thursday includes import and export prices and weekly jobless claims numbers.* European shares saw fresh gains after their best day in over a month and as bets that the United States could be edging towards its first interest rate rise kept upward pressure on global bond yields and the dollar.* Economists and top Wall Street banks expect the Fed to raise rates in September, which would be the central bank's first hike in almost a decade and would finally mark a turn in the direction of the flow of easy money that has repeatedly driven world stocks and bond prices to record highs in recent years.* Box shares jumped 11.3 percent to $19.80 in premarket trading after the cloud storage provider raised its full-year forecast.* Amgen rose 1.1 percent to $157.25, a day after an advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommended approval of its cholesterol-lowering drug.* Dow component Nike inched up 0.5 percent to $103.80 after it won an eight-year merchandising and marketing contract with the National Basketball Association, replacing Adidas as the exclusive apparel provider.Futures snapshot at 7:28 a.m. ET:* S&P 500 e-minis were down 1 points, or 0.05 percent, with 114,791 contracts traded.* Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 1.25 points, or 0.03 percent, on volume of 14,583 contracts.* Dow e-minis were up 4 points, or 0.02 percent, with 13,971 contracts changing hands.(Reporting by Tanya Agrawal; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)Join the conversation about this story »
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