Stock futures mixed as traders look to Washington

Investors are again looking to Washington for clues about the market.

Stock futures are mixed but showing only modest moves Thursday as investors await testimony from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on the White House's proposed overhaul of the nation's financial regulatory system.

Major European markets were steady after a slide in Japan.

Geithner is expected to appear before Senate and House committees to discuss the proposals outlined by President Barack Obama on Wednesday. The plan would give new powers to the Federal Reserve to oversee the entire financial system and would also create a consumer protection agency to guard against credit and other abuses.

Investors have kept close watch on developments in Washington since the financial crisis intensified in the fall and the government stepped in to help steady markets.

A report on weekly unemployment claims could also help direct trading. Economists predict that new jobless claims changed little last week, but that the number of people continuing to receive unemployment benefits set a 20th straight record.

The Labor Department's tally of new jobless claims is expected to slip by 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 600,000, according to a survey of Wall Street economists by Thomson Reuters. The report is due at 8:30 a.m. EDT.

Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 12, or 0.1 percent, to 8,425. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 0.20, or less than 0.1 percent, to 905.50, while Nasdaq 100 index futures fell 1.50, or 0.1 percent, to 1,452.00.

Stocks mostly fell Wednesday and are down sharply for the week, with the S&P 500 index registering a loss of 3.8 percent this week. After modest gains last week and the slide this week, traders are worried that a three-month rally that pushed stocks up 40 percent had gone too far.

Investors are now eager for any news that could re-ignite that market's climb or signal how long it might take the economy to recover from the recession that began in December 2007.

Traders this week are also watching for volatility ahead of Friday's quarterly "quadruple witching" day, which marks the simultaneous expiration of a number of different options contracts. Stocks are more likely to push higher during the expirations but trading is often heavy and fractious.

Bond prices slipped, pushing up the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note to 3.71 percent from 3.69 percent late Wednesday.

The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices rose.

Light, sweet crude rose 53 cents to $70.50 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Investors will be looking to Geithner's testimony before the Senate Banking Committee at 9:30 a.m. and the House Financial Services Committee at 1 p.m. for more insight into how the biggest changes to financial regulation since the 1930s might unfold. House Republicans, for example, said Obama's plan would hurt the market by imposing unnecessary regulation.

After the opening bell, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve is expected to report on regional manufacturing conditions.

Meanwhile, a private sector group's forecast of economic activity is expected to have risen for a second straight month in May.

The Conference Board's index of leading economic indicators likely rose 0.9 percent last month, according to analysts. A 1 percent gain in April was the biggest in more than three years. The index hadn't risen in seven months.

The reports are due at 10 a.m.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 1.4 percent. In afternoon trading, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.6 percent, Germany's DAX index slipped 0.1 percent, and France's CAC-40 fell 0.4 percent.