US index futures are now eyeing a moderately higher start to Thursday’s session. Global growth worries are taking a toll, but losses in overnight trade have already been reversed and traders appear to be itching to find the next bout of direction. Quiet where this comes from is difficult to see – some have suggested that in the wake of a yield curve inversion, the market actually does quite well, whilst dollar denominated assets also stand to find favour given the fact the Fed appears to be the most resilient of the central banks out there, even if a rate cut is seen as likely by the year end.
One metric which could swing sentiment later today is the release of the revised Q4 US GDP reading. This is expected to be nudged down from 2.6% to 2.4%, but anything much below that level could be sufficient to give traders some cause for concern. Otherwise it’s a case of looking towards the month-end and hoping that some developments are seen in the US-China trade talks in the not too distant future. These may be off the radar for now but still have the potential to inject significant levels of volatility.
Ahead of the open we’re calling the Dow up 49 at 25675 and the S&P 500 up 4 at 2809.