Investing.com – After the Dow registered its largest drop since February in the prior session due to disappointed retailer earnings, U.S. futures pointed to a bounce higher on Thursday as market players waited for more quarterly reports, weekly jobless claims and appearances from Federal Reserve (Fed) officials.
The blue-chip Dow futures gained 81 points, or 0.46%, by 10:46AM GMT, or 6:46AM ET, the S&P 500 futures rose 12 points, or 0.60%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 26 points, or 0.59%.
Market focus continued to be on earnings with the likes of Kohl’s Corporation (NYSE:KSS), Ralph Lauren (NYSE:RL) or Party City Holdco Inc (NYSE:PRTY) to report prior to the open, with Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN), NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Symantec (NASDAQ:SYMC) preparing their own numbers after the closing bell.
On the economic front, investors looked ahead to the release of weekly jobless claims at 12:30GMT, or 8:30AM ET, with consensus expecting a slight drop of 4,000 to 270,000.
Several Fed officials were also on tap with market participants keeping a watch for clues on the future path of interest rates.
Cleveland Fed president Loretta Mester was scheduled to speak on monetary policy at 15:00GMT, or 11:00AM ET.
Boston Fed chief Eric Rosengren will give a speech at 15:45GMT, or 11:45AM ET.
Kansas City Fed president Esther George will talk about the economy at 17:30GMT, or 13:30ET.
In oil markets, black gold after the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Thursday that output disruptions were apt to erode excess supply and the agency slightly increased its forecast for demand, while noting that “any changes to our current 2016 global demand outlook are now more likely to be upwards than downwards.”
U.S. crude futures gained 0.93% to $46.66 by 10:48AM GMT, or 6:48AM ET, while Brent oil traded up 0.80% to $47.98.
Also of note in precious metals, global gold demand at the start of 2016 rose at its fastest pace ever on inflows from exchange traded funds (ETFs), according to an industry report released on Thursday.
The 21% annual increase in the first quarter was the largest ever for the first three months of a year and the second fastest quarterly place on record, according the World Gold Council report.