What to watch today: Stock futures little changed, Roger Stone’s sentencing, L Brands to go private

U.S. stock futures were narrowly mixed, following a Wednesday rally that saw the S&P 500 and Nasdaq close at record highs. The Dow is still about 200 points shy of a record high, but did break a three-day losing streak with a nearly 116 point gain yesterday. The S&P 500 is higher in five of the past seven days, while the Nasdaq has risen in six of the past seven sessions. (CNBC)

On today’s economic calendar, the Labor Department issues its weekly report on initial jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. ET. The Philadelphia Fed Index is out at the same time. At 10 a.m. ET, the Conference Board issues its January Index of Leading Economic Indicators. CNBC’s Steve Liesman will interview Fed Vice Chairman Richard Clarida at 8:30 a.m. ET on “Squawk Box.”

Earnings reports out this morning include Domino’s Pizza (DPZ), Hormel Foods (HRL), Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH), Southern Co. (SO) and ViacomCBS (VIACA). After-the-bell reports will come today from Fitbit (FIT), First Solar (FSLR), Dropbox (DBX) and Texas Roadhouse (TXRH), among others.

Roger Stone, a veteran Republican operative whose friendship with President Donald Trump dates back decades, is set to be sentenced today after a 12-member jury in November found him guilty on all seven counts of lying to Congress, obstruction and witness tampering. The judge on Tuesday rejected Stone’s bid to delay the sentencing. (Reuters)

Trump offered a pardon to Julian Assange if the WikiLeaks chief agreed to say that Russia had nothing to do with hacking emails from Democrats during the 2016 presidential election, Assange’s lawyer said. White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham called the claim by Assange’s lawyer “a complete fabrication and a total lie.” (CNBC)

The White House issued a vigorous defense of the Trump administration’s economic agenda on Thursday, claiming credit for changing the trajectory of the nation’s record expansion — while taking aim at the Obama administration’s record. In its annual report to Congress, the White House highlighted GDP growth that has outpaced expectations and a jobless rate that has hit historic lows. (CNBC)

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has opened an investigation into Google (GOOGL) for pregnancy discrimination against an employee, CNBC reported. The latest investigation comes as Alphabet-owned Google faces multiple investigations from federal agencies as complaints by former Google employees mount.

L Brands (LB) could announce a deal as soon as today to sell a stake in its Victoria’s Secret business to private equity firm Sycamore Partners, in a transaction that values the brand at about $1.1 billion. Leslie Wexner, the embattled billionaire who has run the retail company for more than 50 years, will step down from his roles as CEO and chairman, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Zillow Group (ZG) reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter losses, and the online real estate company’s revenue was well above estimates. Results were driven by an increase in the number of people using Zillow’s website to buy and sell homes.

IMAX (IMAX) beat estimates by 4 cents with adjusted quarterly earnings of 35 cents per share, with the movie theater operator’s revenue also coming in above Street forecasts.

UBS (UBS) named ING CEO Ralph Hamers as its chief executive officer, effective Nov. 1. UBS is the second big Swiss bank to replace its CEO this month, with Credit Suisse (CS) doing so on Feb. 7.

MGM Resorts (MGM) said it was the victim of a data breach, which exposed details of prior guests. The resort operator said no financial or password data was compromised. ZDNet had reported earlier that the details of more than 10.6 million guests were involved.