Stock-index futures point higher ahead of jobless claims data - MarketWatch

U.S stock-index futures pointed to a higher start Thursday as the White House said it was readying guidelines for reopening parts of the economy and investors gird for data that’s expected to show millions more Americans lost their jobs last week.

What are major indexes doing?

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average YM00, -0.06% rose 66 points, or 0.3%, to 23,457, while S&P 500 futures ES00, +0.07% rose 0.4%. Nasdaq-100 futures were up 0.7%.

Stocks fell Tuesday, with the Dow DJIA, -1.86% dropping 445.41 points, or 1.9%, to close at 23,504.35 and the S&P 500 SPX, -2.20% shedding 62.7 points, or 2.2%, to finish at 2,783.36. The Nasdaq Composite COMP, -1.43% broke a four-day winning streak, closing at 8,393.18, down 122.56 points, or 1.4%.

What’s driving the market?

Efforts by leaders in Europe and the U.S. to begin reopening economies closed by the effort to contain the COVID-19 pandemic were credited with lifting global equities. President Donald Trump is expected Thursday to announce guidelines that would allow states to begin reopening certain activities, while Germany will allow small shops to reopen beginning Monday.

“News that the lockdown is coming to an end will be the ultimate pickup for stocks. However, this needs to come hand in hand with evidence that a second wave of coronavirus infections isn’t around the corner,” said Fiona Cincotta, market analyst at City Index.

Stocks fell Wednesday after a round of ugly economic data that saw retail sales for March plunge more than 8% from the previous month.

Investors are bracing for another round of woeful U.S. data on the employment front, with weekly jobless claims figures due at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch, on average, forecast first time claims to fall, albeit to a still eye-watering 5 million after a jump of 6 million the previous week.

Read:Jobless claims might top 5 million for third straight week, push unemployment to 15%

Data on March housing starts and building permits, also due at 8:30 a.m. Eastern, are expected to show a substantial slowdown. The Philadelphia Federal Reserve’s April manufacturing index, due at the same time, is expected to drop to -37.5 from -12.5 a month earlier.

Which companies are in focus?

• Shares of BlackRock Inc. BLK, -3.26%, the world’s largest asset manager, were up 3% in premarket trade after reporting first-quarter profit that came in below expectations but saw revenues beat forecasts.
• Railroad-car maker Greenbrier Companies Inc. GBX, -6.37% on Thursday said it has laid off 3,700 people, or more than 20% of its workforce, this fiscal year, because of the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Shares were up 1.4% ahead of the opening bell.
• Shares of Abbott Laboratories ABT, +2.01% rose 3.3% in pre-market trading after sales and EPS both beat consensus forecasts.

How are other markets trading?

One day after notching its largest daily yield drop since March 23, the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note TMUBMUSD10Y, 0.607% dipped one more basis point, to about 0.628%.

Crude oil for May delivery CLK20, +1.45% rose 1.3% to $20.12 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The price of an ounce of June gold GCM20, +1.51% rose 1.2% to $1,761.10

The U.S. dollar DXY, +0.26% rose 0.3% against a basket DXY, +0.26% of currency rivals, according to the U.S. dollar index.

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2020-04-16 11:43:01Z
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