US pre-open: Futures mixed ahead of weekly jobless data
By Iain Gilbert
Date: Thursday 09 Jul 2020
(Sharecast News) - Wall Street futures had major indices opening mixed on Thursday ahead of this week's jobless claims data.
As of 1230 BST, Dow Jones futures were down 0.13%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were up 0.04% and 0.48%, respectively.
The Dow closed 177.10 points higher on Wednesday as Wall Street equities finished a mixed session in positive territory.
Thursday's main focus will be this week's jobless claims data from the Department of Labor at 1330 BST, with consensus estimates expecting another 1.39m Americans to have filed first-time claims for unemployment benefits in the week ended 4 July. While that figure would be a marked deceleration from the prior week, the number was still far and above any reading seen before the Covid-19 pandemic.
In terms of the outbreak itself, total confirmed cases of the coronavirus had topped 12m globally - with the US, which reported 58,000 new cases on Wednesday, being home to more than a quarter.
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, cautioned on Wednesday that the US was still riding he first wave of the pandemic.
"We have never gotten out of the first wave," he said. "So I wish we would stop talking about waves and just look at the reality of where we are right now."
On the macro front, besides the jobless claims data, May's wholesale inventory figures will be published at 1500 BST, while a speech by Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta head Raphael Bostic at 1700 BST will also be in focus.
In the corporate space, Microsoft shares were expected to open in record territory after analysts at Wedbush Ives raised the software giant's target price to the highest on the Street, while Poseida Therapeutics revealed that its planned initial public offering would see the group offer 14m shares at a price of $16 each.
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