US STOCKS-Wall St to open flat as earnings roll in; jobless claims fall

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* AT&T rises on strong results
* American Airlines up as quarterly loss narrows
* U.S. weekly jobless claims decline further
* Futures: Dow and S&P flat, Nasdaq down 0.05%

(Adds comments, details; Updates prices throughout)
By Shivani Kumaresan and Shreyashi Sanyal
April 22 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes were set to
open flat on Thursday as investors assessed earnings from U.S.
airlines and AT&T, while data showed fewer Americans filed fresh
claims for unemployment benefits last week.
Shares of American Airlines Group Inc AAL.O and Southwest
Airlines Co LUV.N rose more than 2% each after the two
airlines reported a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss.
Shares of AT&T Inc T.N jumped 4.5% after the company's
wireless subscriber additions trounced analysts' estimates.
"The issue for investors in earnings season is whether
you'll start to see continued growth in earnings projections or
whether you'll start to get a flagging out as it seems like
there is some inflation and disruption in the supply chain,"
said Rick Meckler, partner, Cherry Lane Investments, New Jersey.
"At these elevated levels you continue to need more good
news to support higher stock prices."
U.S. stock index futures briefly turned positive after
initial claims for state unemployment benefits totaled 547,000
for the week ended April 17 compared to 586,000 in the prior
week. The data suggested layoffs were subsiding and strengthened
expectations for another month of blockbuster job growth in
April. Wall Street's main indexes closed higher on Wednesday,
recovering from a two-day decline, with the economically
sensitive value stocks .RLV gaining about 1.1%.
Speedy vaccination rollouts in the United States has
improved the pace of economic recovery, infused confidence among
people and given a solid start to the first-quarter earnings
season.
The U.S. economy will grow at its fastest annual pace in
decades this year and outperform most of its major peers, with
the outlook upgraded sharply, but another COVID-19 surge was the
biggest risk over the next three months, a Reuters poll showed.

At 8:43 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were down 4 points, or
0.01%, S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were up 0.5 points, or 0.01%, and
Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were down 6.5 points, or 0.05%.
Chipmaker Intel Corp INTC.O is expected to post a drop in
first-quarter revenue later in the day, with analysts looking
forward to updates on its U.S. manufacturing plants and chips
for automakers amid a global microchip supply shortage. Its
shares rose 0.2% in premarket trading.