NEW YORK - U.S. stocks headed for a moderately lower open Thursday and credit markets appeared steady but still strained as investors awaited readings on unemployment and factory orders. Wall Street also digested the Senate's overwhelming approval of a $700 billion financial rescue package, which now moves to the House.

The version of the bill that the Senate passed in a 74-25 vote late Wednesday added $100 billion in tax breaks for businesses and the middle class. It also raised the limit on federal deposit insurance to $250,000 from $100,000.

Party leaders are hoping that the sweetened bill will be more palatable to some of the 133 House Republicans who rejected the measure in a vote Monday that took Wall Street, and many on Capitol Hill, by surprise.

Backers say the plan to let the government buy billions of dollars in bad mortgage debt and other now-toxic assets will help unclog the world's ailing credit markets. Banks are fearful of making loans, even to each other, because of worries they won't recoup their money. That, in turn, is weighing on the economy, making borrowing more difficult and expensive for businesses and consumers alike.

The House is expected to vote again on the measure Friday.

The indecision in Washington has made an already nervous Wall Street less certain about how the credit markets will fare. Investors have sought safety in government debt, though demand appeared stable early Thursday. The yield on the 3-month T-bill, the safest type of investment, stood unchanged at 0.79 percent from late Wednesday. Still, the historically low yields indicate investors are willing to accept the smallest of returns to safeguard their money.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, remained unchanged at 3.74 percent from late Wednesday.

Dow Jones industrial average futures slipped 61, or 0.56 percent, to 10,826. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 6.20, or 0.53 percent, to 1,162.20. Nasdaq 100 index futures fell 3.00, or 0.19 percent, to 1,575.75.

The dollar was higher against other major currencies, particularly the euro, ahead of a decision on interest rates Thursday by the European Central Bank.

Light, sweet crude fell $1.28 to $97.25 a barrel in premarket electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Beyond the events in Washington, investors were awaiting a report on the labor market. Economists, on average, expect the Labor Department will show that claims for unemployment benefits declined by 18,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted level of 475,000.

The jobs report is expected at 8:30 a.m.

The well-being of the labor market is a key concern for investors as increased unemployment could dent consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity.

Investors also will be looking to a reading on demand at the nation's factories. Wall Street expects that factory orders fell by 2.5 percent in August, according to the consensus of economists surveyed by Thomson/IFR.

The Commerce Department report is due at 10 a.m. EDT.

Wall Street also found some room for optimism after Swiss bank UBS said Thursday it expects to turn a "a small profit" in the third quarter after a string of losses. The forecast from the company, which has taken billions of dollars in mortgage-related write-downs, stirred hopes that some banks' troubles could be on the mend.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 1.88 percent. In afternoon trading, Britain's FTSE 100 rose 1.54 percent, Germany's DAX index rose 0.80 percent, and France's CAC-40 advanced 0.93 percent.