U.S. stock index futures edged slightly higher on Thursday with investors eyeing a government report on weekly jobless claims and more corporate earnings, one day after Wall Street ended a four-day rally,

* U.S. stocks ended a run-up on Wednesday that drove the three major indexes up to their nine-month to 10-month highs.

* Nasdaq futures were lower with Cisco Systems Inc in the spotlight after its chief executive painted a gloomy outlook for the world's largest equipment manufacturer. The stock was down 3.2 percent to $21.45 in light volume in premarket trading, although the technology company's revenue forecast was mostly in line with Wall Street's expectations and profit for the July quarter exceeded forecasts.

* Investors will look for clues on whether the pace of job losses is slowing when the U.S. Labor Department releases first-time claims for jobless benefits for last week at 8:30 a.m. (1230 GMT). Economists in a survey by Reuters are expecting initial claims to dip to 580,000 from 584,000 the week earlier.

* Continuing claims for jobless benefits are expected to rise to 6.23 million from 6.197 million, according to a Reuters survey.

* S&P 500 index futures were up 1.90 points, above 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 rose 16 points, while Nasdaq 100 futures were unchanged.

* Shares of Bank of America rose in premarket trade after a Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analyst said the bank may post slight losses in the third and fourth quarters before turning profitable in 2010. Bank of America was up 1.8 percent at $16.96.

* Corporate quarterly results on tap include El Paso Corp , CBS Corp and Comcast Corp .

* European bank and the Bank of England holds interest rate decisions later in the day.

(Reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Padraic Cassidy)

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