Futures Suggest Lower Open For Wall Street

(RTTNews) - The weekly jobless claims, Fed announcements, the Conference Board's Leading Indicators for May as well as Business Outlook Survey for June might influence investor sentiments on Thursday.

Asian shares finished mixed, while European shares are trading lower. Initial signals from the U.S. Futures Index suggest that Wall Street might open lower on Thursday morning.

As of 8.20 am ET, the Dow futures were losing 366.00 points, the S&P 500 futures were down 48.00 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures were sliding 121.25 points.

U.S. major indices snapped three-day winning streaks, the Dow slid 170.37 points or 0.7 percent to 26,119.61 and the S&P 500 fell 11.25 points or 0.4 percent to 3,113.49, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 14.66 points or 0.2 percent to 9,910.53.

On the economic front, the Labor Department's Jobless Claims for the week will be issued at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is for 1,220K, while it was 1542K in the prior week.

Philadelphia Fed Business Outlook Survey for June will be released at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is for a decline of 22.7, compared to fall of 43.1 in the prior month. The Conference Board's Leading Indicators for May will be revealed at 10.00 am ET. The consensus is for an increase of 1.7 percent, while it was down 4.4 percent in the prior month.

The Energy Information Administration or EIA's Natural Gas Report for the week will be issued at 10.30 am ET. The prior week's weekly change was 93 bcf.

The Fed's balance sheet for the week will be published at 4.30 pm ET. In the prior week, the level was at $7.169 trillion. The Fed Money Supply for the week is scheduled at 4.30 pm ET. The M2 weekly change was $37.8 billion. Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Loretta Mester will speak at the Global Interdependence Center on the Fed's response to Covid-19, a "Fireside Chat" moderated by William Kennedy, GIC vice chair of programs at 12.15 pm ET.

San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Mary Daly to deliver a virtual commencement address to the Preuss School at the University of California, San Diego at 7.00 pm ET.

Asian stocks finished mixed on Thursday. Chinese shares ended on a positive note. The benchmark Shanghai Composite index edged up 0.12 percent to 2,939.32, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index ended little changed with a negative bias. Japanese shares extended losses. The Nikkei average ended down 100.30 points, or 0.45 percent, at 22,355.46, while the broader Topix index closed down 4 points, or 0.25 percent, at 1,583.09.

Australian markets declined. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index shed 55.30 points, or 0.92 percent, to 5,936.50. The broader All Ordinaries index ended down 57.20 points, or 0.94 percent, at 6,051.90.

European shares are trading lower. Among the major indexes in the region, the CAC 40 Index of France is down 77.44 points or 1.55 percent. The German DAX is losing 174.49 points or 1.40 percent, the U.K. FTSE 100 Index is sliding 65.67 points or 1.05 percent.

The Swiss Market Index is down 49.34 points or 0.48 percent.

The Euro Stoxx 50 Index, which is a compilation of 50 blue chip stocks across the euro area, is down 1.15 percent.