By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - U.S. stocks are set to open mixed Thursday, consolidating recent gains amid tech sector strength and more hints of policy easing from the Federal Reserve.
At 7:15 AM ET (11:15 GMT), S&P 500 futures traded 7 points, or 0.2%, lower, Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) futures up 25 points, or 0.3%. The Dow Jones 30 Futures contract fell 37 points, or 0.2%.
The DJIA cash index is on track for its best month since January 1987, while the S&P 500 is looking at its biggest monthly gains since October 1974.
The Federal Reserve kept rates unchanged on Wednesday, but expressed a willingness to do more to support the economy if this was needed.
"It may well be the case that the economy will need more support from all of us if the recovery is to be a robust one," Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said.
The need for more support could well be illustrated with the release of the latest weekly jobless claims data, at 8:30 AM ET (1230 GMT).
Claims for first-time unemployment benefits are expected to have risen by 3.5 million, down from a rise of 4.43 million the week before. This follows the hefty 4.8% slump in first-quarter gross domestic product, the first time the U.S. economy has contracted in six years.
The U.S. coronavirus death toll has surpassed 60,000, with more than one million confirmed cases, representing about a third of all cases from around the world.
Yet the move to reopen the economy is getting stronger after President Donald Trump said federal guidelines aimed at limiting the spread of the virus would be “fading out”, putting the onus firmly on the state officials to allow the reopening of businesses.
Optimism has also been driven by positive partial results from a trial of Gilead (NASDAQ:GILD)'s antiviral drug remdesivir, which suggested it could help speed recovery from Covid-19.
The corporate earnings season continues Thursday, with the likes of McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD)reporting early and tech giants Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) after the close.
Staying with the tech sector, shares in Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) traded over 9% higher premarket as the social media giant reported late Wednesday that its ad sales stabilized in recent weeks, part of a strong earnings report.
Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) shares climbed 2.6% premarket after the company reported fiscal third-quarter sales growth of 15% after Wednesday’s close, fueled by its cloud business.
Tesla's (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares climbed 8% premarket after surprising with a first-quarter profit amid the broad economic destruction wrought by the coronavirus pandemic.
Oil futures pushed higher Thursday, helped by stockpiles of U.S. crude rising less than expected last week - in a clear weakening of the recent trend.
At 7:05 AM ET, U.S. crude June futures traded 17% higher at $17.62 a barrel. The international benchmark Brent contract rose 8.3% to $26.24.
Elsewhere, gold futures rose 1% to $1,729.70/oz, while EUR/USD traded at 1.0877, largely flat.