Investing.com - Wall Street futures pointed to a flat open on Thursday as market participants received no new details on fiscal policies to be implemented by the Trump administration.
The blue-chip Dow futures inched up 4 points, or 0.02%, by 7:11AM ET (12:11GMT), the S&P 500 futures edged forward 1 point, or 0.03%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures was unchanged.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin revealed in an interview with CNBC that the goal for Trump's long-awaited tax reform was to have it done before the Congress recess in August, leaving markets with hopes that President Trump could provide more details next week when he addresses a joint session of Congress on Tuesday.
On the economy, Mnuchin insisted that 4% growth was attainable though he pointed out that it could take as long as late 2018 to get to 3% growth.
Markets showed little reaction to Mnuchin's comments.
Later on Thursday, Trump, who has vowed to stop U.S. manufacturing from disappearing overseas, will seek job-creation advice from at least five companies that are laying off thousands of workers as they shift production abroad.
Executives from Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT), United Technologies (NYSE:UTX), 3M (NYSE:MMM), General Electric (NYSE:GE) and Dana (NYSE:DAN) are among a group of business leaders due to meet with the president at 10:30AM ET (15:30GMT) to discuss how to help the president deliver on his promise to increase factory employment, according to the White House.
On the data front, market participants will focus on weekly jobless claims, though the Chicago Fed National Activity for January and the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s house price index for December will also be released Thursday.
Traders will also eye earnings reports from retail heavyweights Kohl’s (NYSE:KSS), reporting before the market open, and Gap (NYSE:GPS) and Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN) scheduled for after the market close.
After the prior session’s close, HP Inc (NYSE:HPQ) produced results that beat consensus thanks to strong PC sales. Shares were up more than 2% in pre-market trade.
Similarly, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) saw shares gain around 2% in pre-market trade despite mixed results late Wednesday as the company also presented an aggressive production plan for its mass-market Model 3 sedan.
Meanwhile, oil prices traded higher Thursday after data overnight showed a surprise drop in U.S. crude supplies.
After markets closed Wednesday, the American Petroleum Institute said that U.S. oil inventories surprisingly fell by 884,000 barrels in the week ended February 17, breaking a trend of six-straight builds.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration will release its official weekly oil supplies report at 11:00AM ET (16:00GMT) Thursday amid expectations for a build of 3.475 million barrels.
The reports arrived one day later than usual due to Monday's Washington’s Birthday holiday.
U.S. crude futures gained 1.25% to $54.26 by 7:12AM ET (12:12GMT), while Brent oil traded up 1.27% to $56.55.