07:06 AM EST, 02/06/2025 (MT Newswires) -- US benchmark equity indexes mostly edged higher before Thursday's opening bell as traders await the latest batch of corporate earnings.

Standard & Poor's 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were slightly in the green in premarket activity, while the Nasdaq ticked down 0.1%. The majority of Asian exchanges were trending higher while European bourses were heading north midday on the continent.

Qualcomm's ( QCOM ) shares dropped 3.9% pre-bell even though the semiconductor manufacturer reported fiscal first-quarter results above market expectations. Ford Motor ( F ) fell 6.2% as the automaker projected an annual decline in profitability for 2025. MicroStrategy ( MSTR ) gained 1.1% following its quarterly results.

Eli Lilly ( LLY ) , Philip Morris International ( PM ) , Honeywell International ( HON ) , Bristol-Myers Squibb ( BMY ) , ConocoPhillips ( COP ) , Air Products and Chemicals ( APD ) , Becton Dickinson ( BDX ) , Hilton Worldwide ( HLT ) , Roblox ( RBLX ) , Yum! Brands ( YUM ) , Hershey (HSY), Kellanova ( K ) , Tapestry (TPR) and Ralph Lauren ( RL ) report their latest financial results early Thursday, among others.

E-commerce and technology giant Amazon.com ( AMZN ) posts earnings after the markets close along with Fortinet ( FTNT ) , Cloudflare ( NET ) , Take-Two Interactive Software ( TTWO ) and others.

On the economic calendar, the Challenger Job Cut report for January is out at 7:30 am ET, followed by the weekly jobless claims bulletin and the preliminary productivity and costs report for the fourth quarter of 2024 at 8:30 am. The weekly EIA natural gas supplies report is due at 10:30 am.

Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller is scheduled to speak at 2:30 pm, while Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan speaks at 5:10 pm.

Before the opening bell, bitcoin advanced 1.7% to $99,127, West Texas Intermediate crude oil increased 0.8% to $71.59 a barrel, yields on 10-year Treasuries moved up 1.2 basis points to 4.43% and gold declined 0.2% to $2,888 an ounce.