US pre-open: Futures point to losses following economic warning from Powell
Wall Street futures were pointing to losses on Thursday as market participants digested an economic warning from Federal Reserve head Jerome Powell and awaited what will surely be another dire jobless report.
As of 1230 BST, Dow Jones futures were down 0.43%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.34% and 0.28% weaker, respectively.
The Dow closed 516.81 points lower on Wednesday after Powell warned the coronavirus-fuelled crisis was "without modern precedent".
"While the economic response has been both timely and appropriately large, it may not be the final chapter, given that the path ahead is both highly uncertain and subject to significant downside risks," said Powell, who also stated that more needed to be done to support the US economy amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Also in focus on Thursday will be this week's jobless claims data at 1330 BST, with economists expecting to see another 2.5m Americans having filed claims in the week ended 9 May.
Oanda's Craig Erlam said: "Any hope of a V-shaped recovery is long gone and we're in full damage limitation mode. Perhaps the reality is finally setting in, although who would be surprised to see equities marching higher again tomorrow?
"It's long been said that markets are hooked on stimulus, only more of the drug can sustain them. If that was true before then it's certainly looking the case now and even the staggering efforts we've seen in recent months may not be enough. Only more will do."
In corporate news, Norwegian Cruise Line swung to a $1.88bn first-quarter loss as a result of a non-cash impairment charge of $1.6bn stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic, while Cisco Systems posted stronger-than-expected resilience in its earnings report but warned that sales had declined amid coronavirus outbreak.
Fed heads Neel Kashkari and Robert Kaplan will deliver speeches at 1800 BST and 2300 BST, respectively.