Stock index futures pointed to a steady open on Thursday as investors continued to deal with the aftermath of the massive storm Sandy in the northeast, which had forced a historic two-day market closure earlier this week.

The lack of movement came despite the release of closely watched data on the labor market, which painted an improving economic picture one day ahead of a critical non-farm payroll report.

Weekly jobless claims unexpectedly fell in the latest week, dropping to 363,000 from a revised 372,000 in the previous week. Separately, the ADP National Employment report showed 158,000 private sector jobs were added in October, far more than had been expected. The ADP Report was based on a different methodology than previous months, which could impact comparisons.

Markets are still recovering from the aftermath of Sandy, a massive storm that wreaked havoc up and down the U.S. eastern seaboard and forced markets to close Monday and Tuesday. Trading could be volatile, with many market participants unable to reach their offices, or working from home amid persisting power outages and limited mass transit.

"There are a fair number of firms still dealing with technology and power issues because of the storm," said James Dailey, portfolio manager of TEAM Asset Strategy Fund in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. "There isn't the kind of involvement in markets you would normally see, which explains the lack of movement" in futures.

Dailey added that trading volume wouldn't be high with so many participants out.

"It seems like most firms are shooting for Monday for full operational capacity," he said.

Still, some stocks saw interest in premarket trading.

JDA Software Group soared 18 percent to $44.81 in heavy trading after it agreed to be bought by privately held supply chain software maker RedPrairie Corp for about $1.9 billion in cash.

Pfizer Inc , which delayed the release of its results because of the storm, posted revenue that fell far short of expectations, sending shares down 1.6 percent to $24.46 in premarket trading.

Exxon Mobil Corp , which along with Pfizer is a Dow component, fell 0.7 percent before the bell after posting a drop in its quarterly profit.

S&P 500 futures fell 1.3 point and were below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures slid 12 points and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 2.25 points.

The S&P 500 fell 2 percent in the month of October, breaking a four-month streak of gains.

TEAM's Dailey said that if the S&P falls under a support level around 1,400, "then volatility could spike quite a bit. That's a level a lot of people are hoping will hold, and if it doesn't hold, we could fall another three to five percent."

Overseas markets were higher, with Europe boosted by strong results from such companies as Royal Dutch Shell and Chinese shares posting their strongest daily gains in more than three weeks on bullish data.

U.S. shares of Sony Corp edged higher in premarket trading after the company posted a small profit in its latest quarter and affirmed its full-year view.

The U.S. stock market slowly returned to life on Wednesday after the market's first weather-related multiple-day closure since the late 19th century. The Dow and the S&P 500 closed little changed while the Nasdaq edged lower in a session with slightly less than average volume.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum)