US pre-open: Futures point to losses ahead of jobless data
By Iain Gilbert
Date: Thursday 06 Aug 2020
(Sharecast News) - Wall Street futures had stocks opening lower ahead of the bell on Thursday ahead of this week's jobless data from the Labour Department and after the Nasdaq Composite notched its 31st record close for the year in the prior session.
As of 1220 BST, Dow Jones futures were down 0.27%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.28% and 0.26% higher, respectively.
The Dow closed 373.05 points higher on Wednesday as market participants looked to Washington for news on another Covid-19 stimulus package and thumbed over a slew of data and earnings releases.
US futures were initially higher after Donald Trump vowed to lend support to US airlines in the form of additional federal aid, stating the country "can't lose" its transportation system.
However, futures slid into the red later in the morning as market participants turned their attention back to ongoing talks between America's top lawmakers in Washington.
While the Trump administration appeared to make a slight compromise on its opposition to continued federal support for unemployment benefits, offering to extend extra federal unemployment insurance at $400 per week until December, the two parties have still been unable to reach a final deal.
Elsewhere, Johns Hopkins reported 52,800 new US cases Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, down 25.4% from the 70,800 recorded at the same time a week ago.
"This looks great, but the rate of decline probably is substantially overstated, because the number of new tests yesterday fell by 20.3% compared to a week ago, the seventh straight decline," said Pantheon Macroeconomics' Ian Shepherdson.
On the macro front, July's challenger job cuts data will be posted at 1230 BST, while jobless claims figures for the week ended 25 July will be released at 1330 BST.
In corporate news, Sprint Communications and EchoStar will report earnings on Thursday.
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