US pre-open: Futures point to early gains as stimulus talks remain firmly in focus
Wall Street futures were in the green ahead of the bell on Thursday as market participants continued to look for any potential developments in stimulus talks.
As of 1235 GMT, Dow Jones futures were up 0.37%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.49% and 0.46% firmer, respectively.
The Dow Jones closed 44.77 points lower on Wednesday after congressional leaders appeared to close in on a $900.bn Covid-19 aid package, which comes as the total number of Covid-19 cases in the US topped 17.39m and deaths surpassed 314,600.
Stocks looked set to open higher after the Federal Reserve vowed to keep buying bonds until the US economic recovery was completed, with chairman Jerome Powell also adding that the central bank would increase its bond purchases if the recovery were to slow down.
Thursday's main focuses will be jobless claims data from the Labor Department and housing starts/building permits numbers from the Department of Commerce, both scheduled for release at 1330 GMT
SpreadEx's Connor Campbell said: "Though the Fed left things unchanged policy-wise, its forecasts for this year and the next got a polish – it is now expecting the US economy to contract by 2.4% in 2020, before rebounding by 4.2% in 2021. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, is set to fall back to 5%, not too far off where it was at the start of the year.
"As for fiscal stimulus, Congress is quickly running out of time to get the $908bn bill passed before Friday evening’s shutdown. Confirmation of the relief package could be the thing the markets need to kick-start a Santa rally heading into Christmas week."
Elsewhere on the macro front, the Philadelphia Fed's manufacturing index for December will also be published at 1330 GMT, while the Kansas Fed's manufacturing index will follow at 1600 GMT.
In the corporate space, General Mills beat quarterly sales estimates, while Rite Aid shares soared after the group posted a huge profits beat and raised its full-year outlook.