By Liz Moyer
Investing.com -- Wall Street staged a rally on Wednesday, partially reversing a sharp drop in big tech stocks over the last few sessions.
Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) rebounded as did FANG stocks Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Inc Class C (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB).
NASDAQ Composite gained back 2.7% after dropping 10% in the last week after hitting an all-time high. Still, the tech-heavy index is up 24% this year. Some analysts said the pullback might represent necessary pause as investors digest market news rather than the beginning of a new dotcom bust. Time will tell.
Thursday will feature jobs and other economic data that could provide clues on the pace of the economic recovery. Already, data on job openings showed an increase in July, especially in retail, though the numbers also indicated more people were quitting jobs.
Jobless claims and oil inventory readings are due out in the morning, and earnings are due out from Peloton and Oracle.
Here are three things that could move markets tomorrow:
1. Jobless claims seen falling again
The weekly report on initial jobless claims comes out at 8:30 AM ET (1230 GMT). Analysts tracked by Investing.com expect 846,000, down from 881,000 the previous week. And continuing jobless claims, which come out at the same time, are expected to number 12.9 million, down from 13.2 million the previous week.
The downward trickle of new and continuing claims is a positive sign that the economy is coming back from the Covid-19 lockdowns, but there is still plenty of room for improvement, with the four-week jobless claims average running just under 1 million and a new pandemic economic relief program stalled in Congress.
2. Oil inventory expected to drop
The government's oil inventory data for last week is due out at 11:00 AM ET (1500 GMT). Stockpiles have been declining for weeks despite disruptions like Hurricane Laura, which ripped through the Gulf Coast last month.
Analysts tracked by Investing.com are expecting crude inventory to drop 1.3 million barrels after a draw of 9.4 million barrels the previous week. Oil stored at the Cushing, Oklahoma, facility is expected to increase 391,000 barrels after a build of 110,000 the previous week. Gasoline stocks are expected to decline 2.4 million barrels, after a draw of 4.3 million the previous week.
3. Earnings from two companies that are seen benefiting from lockdowns
On the earnings front, stay-at-home exercise cult favorite Peloton Interactive Inc (NASDAQ:PTON) is expected to report profit of 9 cents a share on revenue of $580 million. The company benefitted from the pandemic shutdown of gyms across the U.S. and is expected to continue to grow despite gym reopenings this fall. On Tuesday, it even announced new, cheaper equipment and different pricing models.
Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL)also reports earnings, with profits expected to come in at 86 cents a share on revenue of more than $9 billion. Demand for cloud infrastructure services is expected to boost sales as companies and students adapted to stay-at-home working and learning. For example, pandemic star Zoom Video uses Oracle's cloud infrastructure services for its popular video conferencing service, according to Yahoo Finance.