By Alexandria Gibbs, CNBC–

U.S. stock index futures fluctuated ahead of Thursday’s open, as earnings season continued to deliver fresh results.

Around 5:30 a.m. ET, Dow futures slipped 5 points, but indicated a relatively flat open of 11.93 points up. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 futures indicated a mixed start to Thursday’s session for their respective markets.

The moves in pre-market trade came after major indexes on Wall Street pointed in different directions by Wednesday’s close. While politics continues to shake up markets, investors in the U.S. have been turning their attention to the corporate space this week, as a slew of earnings are released.

On Thursday, Philip Morris, Bank of NY Mellon and Blackstone are some of the major names scheduled to publish their latest earnings. Sky and Novartisreleased earnings before the bell.

In data, jobless claims and the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing business outlook survey are both due out at 8:30 a.m. ET.

On the central banking front, Fed Governor Randal Quarles will appear before the Senate Banking Committee, where he is set to give the semiannual testimony of the Federal Reserve’s supervision and regulation of the financial system.

Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester will be in Pittsburgh, appearing at an event called “An Evening with Dr. Loretta J. Mester,” while Fed Governor Lael Brainard will be in Washington at the FIA’s 2018 Global Finance Forum on regulatory reform.

Investors will be watching out for political news, with rising tensions in the Middle East after the U.S., U.K. and France conducted missile strikes against the Syrian government last weekend, in response to a suspected chemical attack.