US pre-open: Futures higher ahead of jobless data
Wall Street futures had stocks opening higher ahead of the bell on Thursday ahead of this week's jobless claims data and some key corporate earnings.
As of 1240 BST, Dow futures were up 0.41%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.40% and 0.89% firmer, respectively.
The Dow closed 165.44 points higher on Wednesday despite US-Sino tensions coming back into focus as news of a coronavirus vaccine deal between the White House and pharma groups Pfizer and BioNTech lifted sentiment.
Thursday's main focus will be the Labor Department's jobless claims data at 1330 BST, with another 1.3m Americans expected to have filed for benefits in the week ended 18 July.
Focus was also on some key corporate earnings from Tesla and Microsoft overnight as Tesla smashed analyst expectations with a fourth consecutive profitable quarter, while Microsoft shares were lower in extended trading despite posting largely positive results.
Word that Republican lawmakers were mulling over the concept of extending a watered-down version of current unemployment benefits through to the end of 2020 also led to some optimism on the Street.
On the macro front, the all-important jobless data will be out at 1330 BST, while the Kansas Fed's manufacturing index for July will follow at 1600 BST.
In the corporate space, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, AT&T and Twitter will all post earnings on Thursday.