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Wall Street is looking at a higher open Thursday ahead of a flood of retail sales reports, with a modest dip in oil prices underpinning gains.

Earnings from News Corp. and Best Buy Co.’s $2 billion acquisition of a 50% stake in the retail operations of U.K. company Carphone Warehouse also will supply an early focus.

According to spread bettors IG Index, the Dow Jones industrial average is expected to open up 60 points at 12,874. S&P 500 futures rose 4 to 1,399.30 while Nasdaq 100 futures rose 4 to 1,964.50.

Wall Street tumbled Wednesday as the price of a barrel of oil soared to a record near $124. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 206.48, or 1.59%, to close at 12,814.35, the Nasdaq composite index dropped 44.82, or 1.8%, to 2,438.49, and the S&P 500 lost 25.69, or 1.81%, to 1,392.57. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 3.85% from 3.92% late Tuesday, and light, sweet crude rose $1.69 to settle at $123.53 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

ECONOMIC DATA:

• Initial jobless claims, 8:30 a.m. ET, 370,000 estimate
• Wholesale inventories for March, 10 a.m. ET, 0.5% estimate
• Wholesale sales for March, 10 a.m. ET, 0.7% estimate
• Retailers release sales figures for April

EARNINGS HIGHLIGHTS:

Company                 Symbol    Period     Estimate

American Intl Group       AIG       1Q       $  (.76)
Barr Pharmaceuticals      BRL       1Q           .78
Cablevision Systems       CVC       1Q           .02
Celgene Corp.             CELG      1Q           .34
Dynegy Inc.               DYN       1Q           .05
Edison International      EIX       1Q           .92
El Paso Corp.             EP        1Q           .30
King Pharmaceuticals      KG        1Q           .35
Nasdaq OMX Group          NDAQ      1Q           .49
Nvidia Corp.              NVDA      1Q           .38

Figures in parentheses denote losses.

AFTER-HOURS ACTION:

After Wednesday’s closing bell, News Corp. reported that its latest quarterly earnings more than tripled to $2.69 billion on a one-time gain from a stock exchange with Liberty Media Corp. A number of number of the nation’s largest oil companies - including Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips - have reportedly agreed to pay $423 million to settle litigation over the gas additive MTBE.

Crocs Inc. said it swung to a first-quarter loss, but the shoe company reaffirmed its full-year outlook and guided for adjusted second-quarter earnings above Wall Street’s estimates.