Investing.com - Wall Street futures pointed to a higher open on Thursday in what would be a third straight session of gains that lifted the Dow above 20,000 points and took all three major indices to record highs.
The blue-chip Dow futures gained 35 points, or 0.18%, by 6:52AM ET (11:52GMT), the S&P 500 futures inched up 2 points, or 0.07%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures rose 10 points, or 0.19%.
The major focus would be on the battery of earnings out Thursday in what will be the busiest day for the fourth quarter reporting season as 39 S&P firms release their numbers.
Reports from after the prior day’s close would also be priced in Thursday. That would be the case of eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) whose shares jumped more than 7% in pre-market trade as the online retailer reported strong holiday sales and gave an outlook for 2017 sales that beat consensus.
Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) moved more than 3% lower in pre-market trade as net income halved on the back of multiple legal challenges.
AT&T (NYSE:T) saw little movement in shares in the afterhours market as top and bottom line settled in line with expectations.
Earnings will continue before the bell Thursday with eyes on Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT), Ford (NYSE:F), Fiat Chrysler (NYSE:FCAU), Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA), Biogen (NASDAQ:BIIB) and Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY).
After the close, Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) and Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) are on tap.
Outside of earnings, U.S. healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) will acquire Swiss biotech company Actelion Ltd (SIX:ATLN) in a $30 billion all-cash deal that includes spinning off Actelion's research and development pipeline, the companies said on Thursday. Actelion shares jumped 20% in Zurich, while J&J added 1.3% in pre-market trade in New York.
On the data front, news flow will begin at 8:30AM ET (15:30GMT) with weekly jobless claims, the December goods trade balance and wholesale inventories.
At 9:45AM ET (14:45GMT), Markit will publish its preliminary data on activity in the service sector in January, followed 15 minutes later by the release of December new home sales the Conference Board’s leading index for the same month.
Elsewhere, and ahead of the U.S.’ own gross domestic product (GDP) report on Friday, the U.K. saw growth of 0.6% in the fourth quarter, beating expectations for a slowdown to 0.5%, as consumers and businesses looked past debates over how to trigger Article 50 Britain to officially announce its exit from the European Union.
European equities moved higher, hitting the strongest level in about a year on Thursday, buoyed by the Dow’s historic performance in the prior session.
Earlier, in Asia, markets rose to 3-1/2-month highs, boosted by strong overnight gains on Wall Street.
Meanwhile, oil prices edged higher Thursday, bouncing back from the prior session's losses as market players shrugged off another big jump in U.S. oil inventories.
Supporting prices was a report that more than 4 million barrels of Venezuelan crude and fuels are sitting in tankers anchored in the Caribbean sea, unable to reach their final destination because state-run PDVSA cannot pay for hull cleaning, inspections, and other port services.
U.S. crude futures gained 0.38% to $52.95 by 6:53AM ET (11:53GMT), while Brent oil traded up 0.60% to $55.41.