us stock futures nudged higher thursday helped by relief that a railway strike now was unlikely after a tentative pact was agreed as key economic data awaited   futures on the dow jones industrial average ym00 rose 70 points or 02 to 31321   futures on the sp 500 es00 gained 675 points or 02 to 3972   futures on the nasdaq 100 nq00 increased 65 points or 01 to 12229 on wednesday the dow jones industrial average djia rose 30 points or 01 to 31135 the sp 500 spx increased 13 points or 034 to 3946 and the nasdaq composite comp gained 86 points or 074 to 11720 the white house in the early hours announced that a deal to avert a railway strike set for midnight was reached railroad operators including union pacific unp rose in premarket trade wall street had fretted such a strike could exacerbate inflation at a time when consumer prices already were rising at a clip of 83 yearoveryear in august there’s still a host of economic reports to come on thursday most notably the retail sales report for august a busy slate also includes weekly jobless claims import prices and industrial production for august and september readings of both the empire state and philadelphia fed manufacturing indexes