Futures in the United States are cautiously mixed following the Fed’s induced retreat.
US stock futures were narrowly mixed Thursday, with the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite set for another round of losses after minutes from the Federal Reserve’s most recent policy meeting signaled a faster pace for stimulus withdrawal and interest rate hikes, while traders looked ahead to a series of US economic readings.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 0.3 % , the S&P 500 futures rose 0.1 % , while the Nasdaq futures fell 0.3 % .
Following the release of the Fed minutes, all major equity indices closed down on Wednesday.
Front-month global benchmarks Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate crude both rose more than 1% as official data showed a weekly drop in US petroleum inventory.
Data is likely to be released at 8:30 a.m., showing that the US trade deficit increased to $81 billion in November, up from $67.1 billion the previous month. According to Bloomberg data, new unemployment claims are expected to total 195,000 in the week beginning January 1st, up from 198,000 the previous week.
A data on factory orders is set to be released at 10 a.m., with forecasts predicting a 1.5 % increase for November, following a 1 % increase in October. The Institute for Supply Management’s services index is expected to be 67 in December, down from 69.1 the previous month.
Other US News :
Initial Jobless Claims in the United States rebounded in the week ending January 1st.
Initial unemployment claims in the United States increased to 207,000 in the holiday week ending January 1 from an upwardly revised 200,000 figure the previous week, compared to a decline to 195,000 predicted by a Bloomberg survey of economists.
After dipping by 6,750 the previous week, the four-week moving average increased by 4,750 to 204,500.
In the holiday week ending December 25, insured jobless claims increased by 36,000 to 1,754,000.
Source: XglobalMarkets
