Investing.com – Wall Street futures pointed to a flat open on Wednesday as shares in Snap got routed and investors looked ahead to other earnings reports from retailers along with job and inflation data.
The blue-chip Dow futures lost 22 points, or 0.11%, at 7:04AM ET (11:04GMT), the S&P 500 futures fell 4 points, or 0.17%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures traded down 11 points, or 0.20%.
The lethargy on Wall Street looked set to continue on Thursday as LPL Financial pointed out that, as of Wednesday’s close, “the S&P 500 has traded in a daily range of less than 0.5% for an incredible 14 days in a row,” noting that the previous record was six.
The global stock benchmark seems to have issue with the 2,400 point psychological level, being not only unable to clear the mark, but also closing within one point in three of the last four sessions.
Furthermore, despite marking two new highs in just three days, it’s only up 0.27 points in that period.
Far from imitating the major stock index, shares in Snap Inc (NYSE:SNAP) plummeted more than 20% in pre-market trade on Thursday after the Snapchat owner reported slowing user growth and revenue in its first earnings report as a public company, missing some Wall Street estimates.
On the upside, shares of Whole Foods Market (NASDAQ:WFM) were up more than 4% as same-store sales fell less than feared and the company named five new independent directors to its board.
Retailers will also be on the earnings radar Thursday as Kohl’s (NYSE:KSS) and Macy’s (NYSE:M) report before the open and Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN) delivers quarterly numbers after the market close.
On the economic front, weekly jobless claims and producer price inflation will both be released at 8:30AM ET (12:30GMT).
Meanwhile, oil prices moved higher on Thursday, extending their biggest one-day jump since December after U.S. government data revealed the largest weekly decline in crude supplies so far this year.
U.S. crude futures gained 1.44% to $48.01 by 7:02AM ET (11:02GMT), while Brent oil rose 1.33% to $50.89.
Elsewhere, the Bank of England left monetary policy unchanged as expected on Thursday with interest rates at 0.25% and asset purchases at £435 billion ($536 billion).
Cable weakened immediately after the decision, with GBP/USD trading at 1.2895, compared to 1.2921 prior to the announcement.