Investing.com –Wall Street futures pointed to continuation of the upward trend on Thursday as markets breathed a sigh of relief that the Federal Reserve (Fed) left monetary policy untouched in the prior session and looked ahead to data out later in the day.
The blue-chip Dow futures rose 53 points, or 0.29%, by 6:56AM ET (10:56AM GMT), the S&P 500 futures gained 6 points, or 0.28%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures traded up 15 points, or 0.32%.
Market participants will continue to digest the Fed’s decision to leave rates unchanged, even though three of its voting members dissented on the decision and Fed chair Janet Yellen gave clear indications that a rate hike should happen this year.
That leaves eyes on the November and December meetings, with most economists assuming that the Fed will hold off until the end of the year due to upcoming presidential election.
According to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool, Fed fund futures price in only a 12.4% chance of a move in November, a far cry from the nearly 20% discounted in the previous week. Meanwhile, December continued to be the market’s best bet with odds for a hike at 58.4%.
The lack of a move and softened rate hike outlook sent the dollar to a one-week low on Thursday,. The dollar index, which measures the greenback's value against a basket of six major currencies, fell 0.30% to 95.17 early Thursday, well off the prior session's six-week high of 96.29.
Meanwhile, gold prices rose to a two-week high on Thursday, benefitting from the Fed’s lack of action.
With this is mind, investors looked ahead to weekly jobless claims, the Chicago Fed national activity for August and the house price index for July at 8:30AM ET (12:30GMT).
That will be followed by August existing home sales and the Conference Board’s leading indicators for the same month at 10:00AM ET (14:00GMT).
In company news, Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) showed slight gains in pre-market trade despite a report on Thursday that the internet portal will be announcing a massive data breach this week.
In big moves on earnings, Red Hat Inc (NYSE:RHT) jumped more than 6% in the after hours market Wednesday after a 20% increase in subscription revenue helped it beat consensus on the top and bottom line.
On the downside, Jabil Circuit (NYSE:JBL) slumped almost 5% in pre-market trade Thursday after fiscal fourth quarter revenue dropped 5.3%.
Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE:RAD) and AutoZone (NYSE:AZO) were scheduled to report their own earnings Thursday.
Meanwhile, oil rose to more than a one-week high in early trade Thursday, building on the back of a surprise drop in U.S. crude stockpiles for the third week in a row and a weaker dollar.
U.S. crude futures traded up 1.01% to $45.80 by 7:00AM ET (11:00AM GMT), while Brent oil gained 0.94% to $47.27.