US stock futures slightly increase as economic data is on its way

US stock futures traded slightly on the positive side as investors are waiting on important European, Canadian and US data to be issued today. The S&P is probably going to record its best first half of a year from 15 years. The Japanese economy is another reason for economist to turn optimistic of todays market performance as the Asian country data beat estimates.

Future contracts of S&P 500 expiring in September rose 0.2% to 1,609.7 at 7:13 a.m. in New York. The S&P 500 yesterday posted the biggest three-day gain since early January on better-than-estimated economic data. The benchmark is heading for a weekly increase of 1.3%, compensating its decline in June to 1.1%. Contracts on the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.1%, to 14,957 today.

Japan’s economy advanced in May as industrial output increased by the most since December 2011 and retail sales surged. Industrial production advanced 2% from April triggered by demand from energy sevtor. Retail sales in May gained 1.5% from the previous month.

In corporate news, Pfizer, the health-care company advanced 1.1% in pre-market New York trading. The company stated it will buy back $10 billion worth of stock after announcing earlier this week it will retire about $11.4 billion in shares through the spin off of its animal-health unit.

Molycorp Inc., a producer of rare-earth minerals, jumped 13% in early trading. The company said yesterday that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recommended no enforcement action be taken, after completing an investigation into Molycorp’s public disclosures.

Nike, the world’s largest sporting-goods company, sank 0.9% in premarket trading. Orders for the Nike brand from June to November, excluding the effects of exchange-rate changes, advanced 8%. However analysts projected a gain of 8.8%, according to the average of five estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Asian based units of the company are fighting the raising wages of emplyees which according to Nike has hurt profits.

The Chicago Business Survey and Michigan Confidence index are expected to be released today accompanied with a report of Canadian GDP. All three, are supposed to influence stock market through the spectrum of currencies and commodities change.