By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - U.S. stocks are seen largely unchanged Thursday, cautiously continuing the recent gains as the earnings season rolls on and ahead of the weekly jobless claims release.
At 7:05 AM ET (1205 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was down 10 points, or 0.1%, S&P 500 Futures traded just 1 point higher, and Nasdaq 100 Futures climbed 40 points, or 0.3%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 both eked out small gains on Wednesday, while the Nasdaq Composite closed marginally lower. These indices are all on course for solid gains this week, currently posting gains of between 2.5% and 4%, with the DJIA and S&P on course for their best week in three months.
Sentiment has been boosted by the expectation of another U.S. stimulus package, and the Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday that President Joe Biden could be open to compromise on the size of the package in order to obtain support from Republican Senators so the bill can pass reasonably quickly.
Meanwhile, the earnings season continues, with pharmaceutical giants Merck (NYSE:MRK) and Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) set to report results before the opening bell Thursday, while auto giant Ford (NYSE:F), T-Mobile (NASDAQ:TMUS) as well as Peloton Interactive (NASDAQ:PTON) after the close. Stocks like online market eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY), e-commerce player PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) and semiconductor Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) will also be in focus after they issued quarterly earnings after the close Wednesday.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is expected to meet top financial regulators to discuss the recent stock market volatility, driven by frenzied trading in social media favored stocks, including GameStop (NYSE:GME) and AMC Entertainment (NYSE:AMC).
More U.S. jobless data are due out Thursday at 8:30 AM ET (1330 GMT), with initial jobless claims expected to be 830,000, a fall from last week’s 847,000, and continuing claims seen at 4.7 million, a drop of 71,000.
ADP (NASDAQ:ADP) stated Wednesday that private-sector employment rose by 174,000 last month, surpassing the 70,000 job gains expected, while Friday sees the release of the official employment report for January.
Oil prices pushed higher Thursday, boosted by the commitment of a group of top producers to continue to curb output as well as U.S. crude stockpiles falling to the smallest level in more than 10 months.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, a grouping known as OPEC+, extended its current oil output policy at a meeting on Wednesday, a move designed to balance a market having to cope with a pandemic-induced cut to demand.
U.S. crude futures traded 0.8% higher at $56.14 a barrel, after reaching their highest settlement level in a year on Wednesday. The international benchmark Brent contract rose 0.3% to $58.86, having earlier climbed to its highest in nearly a year.
Elsewhere, gold futures rose 1% to $1,816.10/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.4% lower at 1.1991, falling to a two-month low.