Futures Suggests To Open Broadly Up

The the Labor Department’s weekly jobless claims and the U.S. trade deficit might be the focus on Thursday.

In the Asian trading session, the dollar remained under pressure, gold was little changed. The oil futures edged up slightly.

Asian shares finished mostly up, while European shares.

Early cues from the U.S. Futures Index suggest that Wall Street might open broadly up.

As of 8.00 am ET, the Dow futures were up 7.00 points, the S&P 500 futures were adding 0.25 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures were declining 4.50 points.

The U.S. major averages finished broadly up on Wednesday. the Dow dipped 91.90 points or 0.2 percent to 42,427.74, the S&P 500 inched up 0.44 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 5,970.81 and the Nasdaq rose 61.53 points or 0.3 percent to 19,460.49.

On the economic front, the Labor Department’s Jobless Claims for the week will be issued at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is 235K, while it was up 240K in the prior week.

The Labor Department’s Productivity and Costs for the first quarter will be revealed at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is decline of 0.8 percent, while it was down 0.8 percent in the previous quarter.

The Energy Information Administration or EIA’s Natural Gas Report for the week is scheduled at 10.30 am ET. In the prior week, the gas stock was 101 bcf.

The Fed Balance Sheet for the week will be published at 4.30 pm ET. In the prior week, the Level was $6.673 trillion.

Fed Governor Adriana Kugler will speak on the economic outlook and monetary policy before an Economic Club of New York luncheon at 12.00 pm ET.

Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker will speak on the economic outlook before the Philadelphia Council for Business Economics at 1.30 pm ET.

Kansas City Fed President Jeffrey Schmid will speak on banking policy before ‘The Future of Banking: Navigating Change’ conference hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City at 1.30 pm ET.

Asian stocks ended mixed on Thursday. Chinese markets eked out modest gains. The benchmark Shanghai Composite index rose 0.23 percent to 3,384.10 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index jumped 1.07 percent to close at 23,906.97.

Japanese markets ended lower. The Nikkei average dropped 0.51 percent to 37,554.49. The broader Topix index settled 1.03 percent lower at 2,756.47.

Australian markets fluctuated on Thursday.

European shares are trading mostly higher. Among the major indexes in the region, the CAC 40 Index of France is progressing 16.46 points or 0.21 percent. The German DAX is adding 58.75 points or 0.24 percent, the U.K. FTSE 100 Index is gaining 52.96 points or 0.95 percent.

The Swiss Market Index is climbing 34.33 points or 0.28 percent.
The Euro Stoxx 50 Index, which is a compilation of 50 blue chip stocks across the euro area, is up 0.15 percent.

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