Markets In Europe Are Up

European markets are are up early Thursday after new manufacturing reports from the euro zone showed growth slowed more than expected.

Here's the scorecard:

Britain's FTSE 100 is up 0.64%.

France's CAC 40 is up 0.27%.

Germany's DAX is up 0.41%.

Spain's IBEX is up 0.92%

Italy's FTSE MIB is up 1.06%.

The preliminary euro zone composite purchasing managers index (PMI) in August was 52.8, below the expected 53.4 and down from 53.8 the month before.

Asian markets closed mixed. Nikkei's 225 closed up 0.85% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index closed down 0.66%.

US futures are up with Dow futures up 33 points and S&P futures up 3.20 points.

It's a big day for economic data out of the U.S.

The U.S. Department of Labor will release initial claims at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists estimate weekly initial claims ticked up to 300,000 from 11,000 a week ago

Markit U.S. Manufacturing PMI will come out at 10:45 a.m. ET. Economists estimate this manufacturing index slipped to 55.6 in August, down from 55.8 in July.

The Philadelphia Business Outlook Survey is out at 10 a.m. ET. Economists estimate this activity index fell to 19.4 in August from 23.9 in July.

Economists estimate the pace of existing homes sales fell 0.8% in July to an annualized rate of 5.00 million.