US STOCKS-Dow, S&P 500 futures dip at end of strong month; jobless data eyed

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* U.S. weekly unemployment data due at 8:30 a.m. EDT
* Tesla jumps after reporting profitable quarter
* McDonald's dips as quarterly profit slides
* Futures: Dow off 0.29%, S&P 500 down 0.38%, Nasdaq up
0.23%

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By C Nivedita
April 30 (Reuters) - Dow and S&P 500 stock index futures
dipped on Thursday at the end of a strong month for Wall Street,
with investors nervous about another stunning jobless claims
figure, while Nasdaq futures were supported by upbeat earnings
from Facebook and Tesla.
The S&P 500 .SPX is on course for its best month since
1974, powered by dramatic U.S. monetary and fiscal stimulus and
hopes of a revival in business activity as states reopen from
lockdowns.
All three U.S. stock indexes ended Wednesday's session
closer to all-time highs reached in February after positive
partial data from a trial of Gilead Science Inc's GILD.O
antiviral remdesivir showed an improved recovery rate in
COVID-19 patients.
Although data is likely to show weekly jobless claims
stabilized after scaling record highs in March, other numbers
have shown that the U.S. economy confirmed its sharpest
contraction since the Great Recession in the first quarter.
"When you have numbers like jobless claims coming up,
trading, especially in the pre-market, will continue to be
volatile," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at
Spartan Capital Securities in New York.
"If the numbers should come in better than expected, the
market probably will focus on new drugs coming to the market
sooner-than-anticipated, and the earnings from the tech sector."
The Federal Reserve pledged on Wednesday to expand emergency
programs to revive growth but dashed hopes for a fast rebound,
saying the economy could feel the weight of consumer fear and
social distancing for a year. Facebook Inc FB.O jumped 8.5% after beating analysts'
estimates for first-quarter revenue and saying it had seen
"signs of stability" for ad sales in April after a plunge in
March. Electric car maker Tesla Inc TSLA.O gained 8.4% after
posting its third straight quarterly profit, taking investors by
surprise as its automaker peers were hit by a slump in consumer
demand and factory shutdowns. Twitter TWTR.N rose 5.8% after it said that its ads sales
had slightly rebounded in Asia after a plunge due to the
coronavirus outbreak and that it had accelerated work on tools
to attract key advertisers.
McDonald's Corp MCD.N fell 1% after it reported a 16.7%
slide in quarterly profit as most of its restaurants across the
globe limited their services to deliveries and take-aways.
At 7:38 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were down 72 points,
or 0.29%. S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were down 11.25 points, or
0.38% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were up 21 points, or
0.23%.
The two remaining FAANG stocks - Apple Inc AAPL.O and
Amazon.com AMZN.O - will report results after markets close.