By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - U.S. stocks are seen opening mixed Thursday, struggling to climb from record levels ahead of the release of important economic data and ahead of a key speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
At 7:05 AM ET (1105 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was up 25 points, or 0.1%, while S&P 500 Futures traded 3 points, or 0.1%, lower, while Nasdaq 100 Futures dropped 27 points, or 0.2%.
The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.2% Wednesday, closing at a new record level after crossing the 4,500 threshold for the first time ever. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 0.2%, also a record close, while the blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.1%.
The economic data slate includes the weekly initial jobless claims release, at 8:30 AM ET (1230 GMT), which is expected to be largely unchanged from the previous week’s 348,000 figure. The first revision of the second-quarter GDP figure is due at the same time, and is likely to show a slight improvement from the annualised 6.5% growth first recorded.
These numbers create an interesting backdrop for Powell’s highly anticipated speech on Friday at the Federal Reserve’s Jackson Hole symposium. The market is looking for any hints for when the central bank will start tapering its massive bond-buying program.
There are several companies scheduled to report earnings Thursday, including retailers Dollar Tree (NASDAQ:DLTR), Gap (NYSE:GPS) and Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF), tech companies Dell Technologies (NYSE:DELL) and HP (NYSE:HPQ), and exercise equipment company Peloton (NASDAQ:PTON).
Software giant Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) will also be in the spotlight after beating market expectations for earnings in the May-July period, while Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) also released strong quarterly results after the close Wednesday.
JD.com (NASDAQ:JD) will also be in focus after Bloomberg News reported that the Chinese e-commerce company is nearing a deal to buy a controlling stake in storage facilities manager China Logistics.
Elsewhere, oil prices fell Thursday, correcting after the biggest three-day gain since March, with mounting Covid-19 cases, fuelled by the highly transmissible delta variant, continuing to threaten the global demand recovery in the second half of the year.
That said, the picture in the U.S. looks more promising. Crude inventories in the largest consumer in the world fell last week for a third consecutive week while overall fuel demand increased to the most since March 2020, the Energy Information Administration said Wednesday.
By 7:05 AM ET, U.S. crude futures traded 1% lower at $67.69 a barrel, while the Brent contract fell 0.9% to $70.65. Both contracts have risen by around 10% over the last three days.
Additionally, gold futures fell 0.1% to $1,790.45/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.1% higher at 1.1776.