Here are 4 tips for today's trading. This will help you decide where you should invest and what to look for:

 Get ready for a busy Friday.

1) Premarket movers

Amazon, Visa, Starbucks: Amazon (AMZN, Tech30) shares bolted up by about 18% in extended trading after it released better-than-expected earnings on Thursday.

If the shares hold onto those gains at the open, Amazon's market capitalization could trounce Wal-Mart's (WMT), making it the biggest retailer by value in the world.

Shares in Visa (V) look set for a 5% pop at the open after its earnings beat analyst forecasts. And Starbucks (SBUX) shares are up about 4% premarket after reporting earning Thursday afternoon.

But disappointing results from TripAdvisor (TRIP) sent its stock tumbling, down about 9% in extended trading.

In London, Pearson (PSO) shares are rising by about 3% after the publishing company reported half-year results. The company is also selling its Financial Times Group, which owns the eponymous business newspaper.

2) M&A movers

Anthem (ANTX) is reportedly expected to announce a multi-billion dollar bid to take over Cigna (CI) on Friday. It's expected the company will offer $188 per share. The health insurance sector is going through a shake up as Obamacare pressures company profits.

Just three weeks ago, Aetna (AET) reached a $34 billion deal to buy Humana (HUM).

3) More earnings and economic data

Quarterly earnings are expected from companies including American Airlines (AAL), Spirit Airlines (SAVE) and Xerox (XRX) before the market opens.

On the economic side, the U.S. Census Bureau will report new home sales data for June at 10 a.m. ET. Numbers from May showed home sales were at their highest level since 2008.

4) Global stock market overview

U.S. stock futures are edging up a bit and European markets are broadly in positive territory in early trading

However, Asian markets ended the week with losses as investors react to some disappointing economic data.

An early reading of China's manufacturing activity for the month of July came in below analyst expectations. At 48.2, the flash reading was the lowest in 15 months, and indicates that factories in the world's second-largest economy are losing momentum.

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What is it? It's a leading indicator of economic health - businesses react quickly to market conditions, and their purchasing managers hold perhaps the most current and relevant insight into the company's view of the economy. Survey of about 500 purchasing managers which asks respondents to rate the relative level of business conditions including employment, production, new orders, prices, supplier deliveries, and inventories.

When? At 3:30am Eastern Time.

Trading Tip: If the actual number is higher than the forecast, you can expect the EUR to rise.

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What is it? It's a leading indicator of economic health - businesses react quickly to market conditions, and their purchasing managers hold perhaps the most current and relevant insight into the company's view of the economy. Survey of about 400 purchasing managers which asks respondents to rate the relative level of business conditions including employment, production, new orders, prices, supplier deliveries, and inventories.

When? At 3:00am Eastern Time.

Trading Tip: If the actual number is higher than the forecast, you can expect the EUR to rise.

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1. The dollar remained at one-week lows against a basket of other major currencies on Thursday, despite data showing that U.S. jobless claims fell to the lowest level since November 1973 last week, as progress on the Greek debt front supported demand for riskier assets.

The U.S. Department of Labor reported on Thursday that the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending July 18 fell by 26,000 to 255,000 from the previous week’s total of 281,000. Analysts had expected initial jobless claims to fall by 1,000 to 280,000 last week.

2. The Nasdaq composite edged up on Thursday after two days of losses, while the S&P 500 and Dow were lower on weak earnings from bellwethers such as 3M (N:MMM) and Caterpillar (N:CAT).

3) Japan's Nikkei has agreed to buy the FT Group, publisher of the Financial Times newspaper, from Britain's Pearson (L:PSON) for 844 million pounds ($1.31 billion) in cash, the two companies said on Thursday.

4) Natural gas futures briefly extended gains to hit a five-week high on Thursday before turning lower after data showed that U.S. natural gas supplies rose less than expected last week.

5) West Texas Intermediate oil futures rebounded from the previous session\'s steep declines on Thursday, but prices held below the $50-level amid ongoing concerns over a global supply glut.

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Here are 4 tips for today's trading. This will help you decide where you should invest and what to look for:

It's another big day for earnings.

1) Earnings tsunami

Get ready to be hit by a wall of summer earnings reports.

Companies reporting before the trading day begins include McDonald's (MCD), 3M (MMM), Caterpillar (CAT), Comcast (CCV), General Motors (GM), Dunkin Brands (DNKN), Southwest Airlines (LUV), Dr. Pepper (DPS), Under Armour (UA) and Eli Lilly (LLY).

Companies reporting after the market closes include Starbucks (SBUX), AT&T (T, Tech30), Amazon (AMZN, Tech30), Capital One (COF), TripAdvisor (TRIP) and Visa (V).

U.S. stock futures were holding steady ahead of the deluge of results.

2) Movers

American Express, Qualcomm, SanDisk, Credit Suisse: Shares for American Express (AXP) and Qualcomm (QCOM, Tech30) are both slipping by about 2% in extended trading after releasing lackluster quarterly earnings Wednesday. Qualcomm also announced plans to lay off 15% of its workers.

SanDisk (SNDK) is seeing a 13% boost in its share price premarket after it reported earnings per share that were double analysts' expectations.

In Europe, shares in Credit Suisse (CS) were rising by about 5% after the bank reported better-than-expected results.

3) Economics

The U.S. Department of Labor is reporting weekly unemployment claims data at 8:30 a.m. ET.

As it stands now, initial and continuing unemployment claims are at the lowest levels seen in roughly 15 years.

4) International markets and commodities

European markets are broadly positive in early trading, though the moves have been muted.

Greece passed a number of new economic reforms overnight, clearing the way for detailed negotiations to begin on a new bailout package worth as much as 86 billion euros ($94.5 billion).

Asian markets ended with mixed results.

Commodities remain in focus. Gold and oil are inching back up after recent sharp losses.

Crude prices have dropped from a recent high of $61.43 to trade around $49.50 per barrel. Crude futures were trading 0.5% higher.

Gold prices are up 1% this morning, but are still trading at five-year lows.

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What is it? It's a leading indicator of economic health - businesses react quickly to market conditions, and their purchasing managers hold perhaps the most current and relevant insight into the company's view of the economy. Survey of about 430 purchasing managers which asks respondents to rate the relative level of business conditions including employment, production, new orders, prices, supplier deliveries, and inventories.

When? At 9:45pm Eastern Time.

Trading Tip: If the actual number is higher than the forecast, you can expect the CNY to rise.

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What is it? A positive number indicates that more goods were exported than imported. Export demand and currency demand are directly linked because foreigners must buy the domestic currency to pay for the nation's exports. Export demand also impacts production and prices at domestic manufacturers.

When? At 6:45pm Eastern Time.

Trading Tip: If the actual number is higher than the forecast, you can expect the NZD to rise.

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What is it? This is the nation's earliest economic data. The market impact fluctuates from week to week - there tends to be more focus on the release when traders need to diagnose recent developments, or when the reading is at extremes. Although it's generally viewed as a lagging indicator, the number of unemployed people is an important signal of overall economic health because consumer spending is highly correlated with labor-market conditions. Unemployment is also a major consideration for those steering the country's monetary policy.

When? At 8:30am Eastern Time.

Trading Tip: If the actual number is higher than the forecast, you can expect the USD to rise.

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