US STOCKS-Futures slide as jobless claims top 6 million

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* Initial unemployment rose to 6.65 mln last week
* Exxon, Chevron top gainers on Dow premarket
* All three main indexes fell over 4% on Wednesday
* Futures down: Dow 0.42%, S&P 0.25%, Nasdaq 0.33%

(Adds details, comment; Updates prices)
By Medha Singh and Uday Sampath Kumar
April 2 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures fell on
Thursday after U.S. jobless claims topped a whopping 6 million
as more jurisdictions enforced stay-at-home measures to curb the
coronavirus pandemic.
The number of Americans filing claims for unemployment
benefits hit a record high for a second straight week and far
exceeded the median estimate of 3.50 million in a Reuters survey
of economists. "This shows the magnitude and the seriousness of this
problem," said Richard Steinberg, chief market strategist at
Colony Group, in Florida.
"We're going to be digesting this for awhile and until the
data becomes less worse, we're going to have lumpiness in
trading around these shock-and-awe numbers."
Sentiment was earlier lifted by a recovery in oil prices as
U.S. President Donald Trump said he expected Saudi Arabia and
Russia to reach an agreement to cut output to cope with plunging
demand. O/R
Exxon Mobil Corp XOM.N and Chevron Corp CVX.N jumped
more than 6% in premarket trading, while Occidental Petroleum
OXY.N , ConocoPhillips COP and Apache APA.N jumped more
than 9%, leading gains among S&P 500 components.
The Dow .DJI and S&P 500 .SPX are still fresh from their
worst opening quarters in history, as U.S. companies cut
production and withdraw financial forecasts to the coronavirus
outbreak, raising the risk of corporate defaults.
Boeing Co BA.N said on Thursday it would offer buyout and
early retirement packages to employees in the face of a near
collapse in global travel demand. Its shares rose 3% before the
bell. L1N2BQ07O
"Until investors are able to put a price on the final cost
of the economic impact from the virus pandemic, any predictions
of where the bottom is for stocks will be deemed premature,"
said Raffi Boyadjian, senior investment analyst at XM in Cyprus.
At 9:09 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were down 87 points,
or 0.42%. S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were down 6 points, or 0.25%
and Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were down 24.25 points, or 0.33%.
The S&P 500 has lost about $8 trillion in market value since
a mid-February record high as the outbreak spread deeper in the
United States and Trump warned of more economic pain in the next
two weeks as efforts to contain the virus crush business
activity.
Across the Atlantic, British Airways ICAG.L jumped 3%
after reports it was in talks with its union about a plan to
suspend around 32,000 staff, marking one of the industry's most
dramatic moves yet to survive the coronavirus impact.
Delta Airlines DAL.O , United Airlines Holding UAL.O and
American Airlines AAL.O , among the most battered U.S. stocks
this year, rose about 5%.
Southwest Airlines Co LUV.N jumped 3% as it said it
intended to file an application with the U.S. Treasury
department for aid related to the disruption caused by the
health crisis.