Wall Street Might Open Broadly Down

(RTTNews) - U.S.-Iran hostilities over control of the Strait of Hormuz is continuing. According media reports, at a high wartime, the U.S. military escorted 40 commercial ships carrying 18 million barrels of oil through the Strait Hormuz.

Oil prices held steady on Thursday. Brent crude futures were up half a percent at $96.07 a barrel.

Gold prices were sharply higher. Spot gold jumped 1.1 percent to $4,435.98 an ounce while U.S. gold futures were up 1.6 percent at $4,483.44

As of 8.00 am ET, the Dow futures were adding 97.00 points, the S&P 500 futures were losing 0.25 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures were slightly down 66.50 points.

The U.S. major averages all finished Wednesday firmly positive. The Dow climbed 295.07 points or 0.6 percent to 53,061.95, the Nasdaq rose 118.05 points or 0.5 percent to 26,217.82 and the S&P 500 increased 35.13 points or 0.5 percent to 7,666.60.

On the economic front, the International Trade in Goods and Services for July will be issued at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is for a deficit of $75.3 billion, while the deficit was $73.3 billion in the prior month.

The Jobless Claims for the week will be released at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is 205K, while it was up 203K in the previous week.

The Productivity and Costs for the second quarter will be published at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is for an increase of 1.4 percent, while it was up 1.4 percent in the previous quarter.

The PMI Composite Final for August is scheduled at 9.45 am ET. The flash was 56.0.

The ISM Services Index for August will be revealed at 10.00 am ET. The consensus is 54.1, while it was up 54.1 in the prior month.

The Energy Information Administration or EIA's Natural Gas report for the week is expected at 10.30 am ET. In the prior week, the gas stock was 15 bcf.

Three-year, 10-year Treasury Note and 30-year Treasury Bond auction will be held at 11.00 am ET.

The Fed Balance Sheet for the week will be released at 4.30 pm ET. In the prior week, the Level was $6.731 trillion.

Christopher Waller will speak on the economic outlook in a virtual Reuters NEXT Newsmaker interview at 8.30 am ET.

Beth Hammack will give opening remarks before the Fed Communities 'Connecting Communities: When Every Dollar Counts: Worker Perspectives on the Economy' event at 3.00 pm ET. Austan Goolsbee gives closing remarks at 3.55 pm ET.

Asian stocks ended on a muted note on Thursday. China's Shanghai Composite index finished marginally higher at 3,942.09. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index dipped 0.39 percent to 25,213.31.

Japanese markets ended slightly lower. The Nikkei average ended a range-bound session 0.17 percent lower at 64,214.48. The broader Topix index settled half a percent lower at 4,102.04.

Australian markets advanced. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.46 percent to 9,020.10. The broader All Ordinaries index ended up 0.41 percent at 9,198.30.