At 8:30 a.m. EDT, the Labor Department is due to release first-time claims for jobless benefits for the week ended April 25. Economists forecast a total of 375,000 new filings, compared with 386,000 in the prior week.

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago releases its Chicago Fed National Activity Index for March at 1230 GMT. The index read -0.09 in the previous month.

National Association of Realtors issues pending home sales for March at 1400 GMT. Economists expect a 1.0 percent rise, compared with a 0.5 percent drop in February.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday that U.S. monetary policy was "more or less in the right place" even though the central bank would not hesitate to launch another round of bond purchases if the economy were to weaken.

Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), the world's largest publicly traded oil and gas producer, is expected to report higher quarterly earnings on the back of strong oil prices.

Other major companies due to announce results included Moody's Corp (MCO.N), Amazon.Com (AMZN.O), PepsiCo (PEP.N), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY.N), Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE.N), Colgate-Palmolive (CL.N), The Dow Chemical Company (DOW.N), Eastman Chemical Company (EMN.N) and Whirlpool Corp (WHR.N).

Shares in enterprise software maker Citrix Systems (CTXS.O) rose 4.7 percent after the bell on Wednesday, chipmaker Xilinx Inc shares (XLNX.O) gained 6.2 percent and TriQuint Semiconductor shares (TQNT.O) were down 9.8 percent following announcements of their results.

U.S. automaker Chrysler Group showed its best quarterly profit since its 2009 bankruptcy on strong sales in North America, and confirmed guidance that it will show a profit of about $1.5 billion in 2012. Chrysler is managed by its majority owner Fiat SpA (FIA.MI).

European equities were supported by a crop of strong corporate earnings. The FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 of top European shares was up 0.2 percent.

U.S. stocks rallied on Wednesday, with a surge in shares of Apple Inc (AAPL.O) on the back of strong earnings giving the Nasdaq its biggest gain of the year. The market was also reassured by the Fed chairman saying the central bank would do more if necessary to lift the economy.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI shot up 89.16 points, or 0.69 percent, to 13,090.72 on Wednesday. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX rose 18.72 points, or 1.36 percent, to 1,390.69. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC jumped 68.03 points, or 2.30 percent, to 3,029.63, scoring its best daily percentage gain since December 20.

(Reporting by Atul Prakash; Editing by Susan Fenton)

• A Permanent Economic Emergency