By Peter Nurse
Investing.com -- U.S. stocks are seen opening lower Thursday, heading back towards the lowest levels of the year ahead of the release of the latest inflation and growth data.
At 07:00 ET (11:00 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was down 200 points or 0.7%, S&P 500 Futures traded 30 points or 0.8% lower, and Nasdaq 100 Futures dropped 130 points or 1.1%.
The main equity indices closed higher Wednesday, with the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average ending over 500 points or about 1.9% higher, and the broad-based S&P 500 rose about 2%, both averages snapping six-day losing streaks. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained about 2.1%.
This bounce off the year's lowest levels followed the Bank of England intervening in the bond market in order to support the gilt market as well as the pound, additionally trying to prevent contagion into other markets. However, this action has only had a limited impact.
Additionally, worries about the U.S. economy falling into recession remain with Federal Reserve officials making it clear they want interest rates to stay higher for longer than investors previously thought in order to tame inflation.
There are more speeches from Fed policy makers Thursday, but the focus is likely to be on another print of gross domestic product for the second quarter. This is due at 08:30 ET (12:30 GMT) and is expected to say the economy contracted 0.6% from the first quarter. Weekly initial jobless claims are also due at the same time.
Adding to the worries, Moscow announced that Russia will formally annex four more areas of Ukraine on Friday after referendums in the regions, condemned by Ukraine and the West as invalid.
This is "a move that could both dramatically escalate the war (as Putin threatens nuclear weapons against anyone who doesn’t acknowledge his fake border) but also bring it to a stalemate (as Moscow probably won’t attempt to take any incremental beyond the territories in question)," said analysts at Vital Knowledge Media, in a note.
"We think the latter is more likely than the former, but neither scenario is really 'positive' as Russia's relationship with the world will stay substantially degraded at least until Putin is no longer around."
In corporate news, earnings are due from the likes of Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ:BBBY) and Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU), but most eyes will be on results from sports apparel maker Nike (NYSE:NKE), which has had supply chain and production issues in China in recent quarters.
Oil prices edged higher Thursday, helped by U.S. crude inventories showing a surprise drawdown last week, which dispelled some concerns over dwindling short-term demand.
By 07:00 ET, U.S. crude futures traded 0.3% higher at $82.38 a barrel, while the Brent contract rose 0.3% to $88.31.
Both benchmarks rebounded around 4% over the prior two sessions after reaching nine-month lows earlier this week as Hurricane Ian threatened to disrupt supply in the Gulf of Mexico.
Additionally, gold futures fell 0.7% to $1,658.05/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.2% lower at 0.9713.