By Dhirendra Tripathi
Stocks gained after policymakers from the Federal Reserve released minutes that showed they agreed the economy had not yet met the criteria they needed to stop or taper off monthly bond purchases.
The minutes of the Fed’s June meeting showed uncertainty among the members about when those conditions will be met.
Bond yields have been under pressure, falling again on Wednesday on concerns the economic recovery could be petering out. At the same time, tech stocks are rebounding on the prospect of more time before rates shoot higher.
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and Twitter shares fell after former President Donald Trump said he would sue the social media giants and Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL), plus their CEOs, after bans imposed on him and others on the platforms.
Oil prices also fell again on Wednesday on continued fallout after the leaders of the global oil cartel could not agree on production amounts for August.
Here are three things that could affect markets tomorrow:
1. Jeans profits
Levi Strauss & Co Class A (NYSE:LEVI) reports earnings on Thursday after the closing bell. The maker of blue jeans and other apparel is expected to report second quarter earnings of 9 cents on revenue of $1.21 billion, according to the analysts tracked by Investing.com.
2. Weekly jobless claims
Continuing jobless claims by individuals qualifying for unemployment insurance in the U.S. for the week ending July 3 are seen falling by 134,000 to 3.335 million from 3.469 million at the end of June 26, according to analysts tracked by Investing.com. The numbers come out at 8:30 AM ET (1230 GMT).
The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits in the week ending July 3 is seen dropping by 14,000 to 350,000 from 364,000 in the week ending June 26. It fell by 51,000 then, a pandemic-era low.
3. More data on oil stocks
Government data on crude inventories will be released Thursday during a holiday week. Inventories are seen falling by 3.925 million barrels in the week to July 2 to 448.37 million barrels. The inventories had fallen 6.718 million barrels in the week prior. The Energy Information Administration will release the data on Thursday at 11:00 AM ET.