Investing.com - U.S. futures pointed to a higher open on Thursday as market players prepared for the release of weekly jobless claims and a string of appearances from members of the Federal Reserve (Fed), while oil surged on Canadian wildfires and increased fighting in Libya.
The blue-chip Dow futures gained 44 points, or 0.24%, by 10:47AM GMT, or 6:47AM ET, the S&P 500 futures rose 6 points, or 0.27%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 12 points, or 0.27%.
In a light economic calendar day, investors will digest the weekly jobless claims released at 12:30GMT, or 8:30AM ET, as the last labor market reference before Friday’s monthly jobs report.
Thus, the market’s focus on Thursday will center on speeches from several Fed officials throughout the day.
After the market close on Wednesday, Minneapolis Fed president Neel Kashkari dismissed the possibility of a recession stateside this year and said he expected moderate growth.
Kashkari suggested that, as long as inflation remains low, the Fed will focus on the labor market and indicated that future rate hikes would not occur until “the data allows it” , but gave no specifics on what he was focusing on.
Traders will try to measure the position of the U.S. central bank on eventual policy tightening via several appearances throughout the day.
St. Louis Fed president James Bullard is due to speak on the economy at 15:30GMT, or 11:30AM ET, at Santa Barbara County's Economic Summit.
San Francisco Fed president John Williams was scheduled to appear on CNBC at 17:40GMT, or 13:40ET.
Both Bullard and Williams will then join up with Atlanta Fed president Dennis Lockhart and Dallas Fed president Rob Kaplan at the Hoover Institution's International Monetary Stability Conference to participate in a panel after Wall Street closes at 23:15GMT, or 19:15ET.
In the meantime, at 10:48GMT, or 6:48AM ET, the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, continued to move away from 16-month lows and was trading up 0.42% at 93.66.
Oil surged on Thursday as Canadian forest fires caused many of the companies in the rich oil sand area to close down pipelines and escalating tensions in Libya caused concern over short-term supply.
U.S. crude futures jumped 2.65% to $44.94 by 10:49AM GMT, or 6:49AM ET, while Brent oil gained 2.24% to $45.62.
In company news, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) jumped more than 4% in the pre-market after announcing plans to produce 500,000 electric cars every year starting in 2018.
Kraft Heinz Co (NASDAQ:KHC) surged more than 5% in Wednesday’s after-hours market after reporting better-than-expected first quarter earnings.
Alibaba, Merck&Co, Kellogg, Avon Products, Chesapeake Energy, Dreamworks, El Pollo Loco Holdings, Hallmark, Herbalife, Icahn Enterprises, Tableau Software and Yelp were among companies scheduled to report earnings.