Stock futures fall ahead of earnings reports, jobless claims
U.S. equity futures traded lower mixed Thursday morning, the day after all three indexes rose for the second consecutive session.
The major futures indexes suggest a decline of 0.3% when the opening bell rings.
Oil prices fell on Thursday for a second straight session, as demand concerns outweighed tight global supply. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures traded around $96.00 a barrel following a 1.9% drop on Wednesday and Brent crude futures traded around $103.00 a barrel after slipping 0.4% in the previous session.
Traders will be watching closely what the European Central Bank decides to do with interest rates at its meeting today. A rate increase is expected. The question is by how much will rates be increased.
Thursday will mark the busiest day for earnings with American Airlines, AT&T, AutoNation, Blackstone, DR Horton, Danaher and Domino’s Pizza among the companies reporting before the market open. Companies on deck for earnings after the bell will include Boston Beer, Capital One Financial, Mattel, Snap and Tenet Healthcare.
Investors will also digest the Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve’s manufacturing index and the latest in continuing and initial jobless claims.
Wall Street ended Wednesday with gains as investors welcomed another batch of encouraging profit reports from U.S. companies. The S&P 500 rose 0.6% to 3,959.90. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.2% to 31,874.84, while the Nasdaq gained 1.6% to 11,897.65.
Nord Stream 1 pipeline from Russia to Europe begins flowing again
The Nord Stream 1, a key pipeline from Russia to Europe, started flowing again after being shut down for 10 days due to maintenance.
Operator Nord Stream AG said natural gas started flowing again to Germany Thursday morning, but the gas flow is expected to fall short of full capacity.
Oil falls 3% on demand concerns
Oil prices fell on Thursday for a second straight session, as demand concerns outweighed tight global supply. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures traded around $96.00 a barrel following a 1.9% drop on Wednesday.
Brent crude futures traded around $104.00 a barrel after slipping 0.4% in the previous session.
Oil prices have been volatile as traders have had to square tighter global supply because of the loss of Russian barrels following the country’s invasion of Ukraine, with recessionary worries that could weaken energy demand, according to Reuters
A major pipeline from Russia to Europe supplying natural gas has started flowing again after a 10-day shutdown for maintenance.
U.S. gasoline inventories rose 3.5 million barrels last week, government data showed on Wednesday, far exceeding analysts’ forecasts in a Reuters poll for a 71,000-barrel rise.
Gasoline continues to trade lower
The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline slipped on Thursday morning to $4.40, according to AAA. The price on Wednesday was at $4.467.
Gas has been on the decline since hitting a high of $5.016 on June 14. Diesel slipped as well to $5.476 down from $5.497.
Cryptocurrencies trading lower Thursday morning
Cryptocurrency prices for Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin were lower Thursday morning.
Bitcoin was trading
at around $22,000 after snapping a two-day winning streak. For the month, the cryptocurrency higher by more than 24%.
Ethereum was trading around $1,400.In the past week, Ethereum was trading higher by more than 37%.
Dogecoin was trading at 6 cents.
Read More: STOCK MARKET NEWS: Futures lower, oil rises, jobless claims on tap