US pre-open: Futures lower ahead of jobless claims data

Wall Street futures had stocks opening lower ahead of the bell on Thursday ahead of this week's jobless claims data from the Labor Department.

As of 1230 BST, Dow Jones futures were down 0.64%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.60% and 0.32% softer, respectively.

The Dow closed 439.58 points higher on Wednesday, halting a sell-off started late last week that saw the Nasdaq enter correction territory.

Thursday's main focus will be the weekly jobless claims report from the Labor Department at 1330 BST, with economists expecting a reading of 850,000 - a slight drop from last week's reading of 881,000.

With futures pointing to somewhat more normal losses before the bell, Oanda's Craig Erlam said: "A strong fight back on Wednesday may encourage investors that now see some of their favourite names trading at a heavy discount to a week ago and look much less frothy.

"We shouldn't be lulled into a false sense of security though just because the moves we're seeing pre-market look a little more normal. We've seen an excessive amount of volatility over the last week and the tech sector has only been set back a month. That's not to say we're definitely going to see further sharp falls but it should perhaps be approached with caution."

Market participants will also have one eye focussed across the pond on a meeting of the European Central Bank, where it will likely lay out a path to further easing later in the year, responding as needed if and when the initial rebound from the Covid-19 economic shock begins to fade.

The US dollar, which hit its highest level in nearly a month in the previous session, was down 0.18% against the pound ahead of the bell.

Elsewhere on the macro front, PPI data for August will be released at 1330 BST, while wholesale inventory figures for July will follow at 1500 BST.

In corporate news, GameStop shares slumped ahead of the bell after posting disappointing quarterly figures.

Dave & Busters, Oracle and Zumiez will all report earnings on Thursday.