21st Nov 2013 13:20
LONDON (Alliance News) - US stock futures are pointing to a slightly higher open Thursday, ahead of important data releases, having closed lower Wednesday.
US stocks declined yet again Wednesday after the Federal Open Market Committee released the minutes from its October policy meeting.
"Many members stressed the data-dependent nature of the current asset-purchase programme," the minutes stated. "Some pointed out that, if economic conditions warranted, the Committee could decide to slow the pace of purchases at one of its next few meetings." This was a slightly more bullish tone than expected.
Wall Street, however, appears to have recovered from yesterday's Fed scare, as indicated by the US stock futures, which now point to a slightly higher open on Thursday.
Ahead of the New York bell, the S&P 500 is called to open up 0.1%, while the Nasdaq Composite and DJIA are called to open 0.2% higher.
However, key retail earnings and data on jobless claims and the manufacturing sector are expected to affect equity indices Thursday.
The Labor department is scheduled to release its jobless claims report for the week ended November 16 at 1330 GMT. Economists expect claims to have slipped to 335,000 from 339,000 in the previous week. Additionally, the Labor Department will release its producer price inflation report for October also at 1330 GMT. The consensus estimates call for a 0.2% month-on-month drop in producer prices.
Markit is scheduled to release the results of its preliminary US manufacturing survey for November at 1358 GMT. Economists expect the index to rise to 52.4 in November from 51.8 in October. At 1500 GMT, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve will release the results of its manufacturing survey for November. The survey is expected to show a decline to 15 from 19.8 in October.
In the foreign exchange market, the euro has been extremely volatile Thursday. The euro dropped to a low against the dollar of USD1.3397 in reaction to a much-weaker-than-expected French PMI reading.
However, comments made by European Central Bank President Mario Draghi has seen the currency jump. Draghi moved to allay fears that, while the ECB had spoken about a negative deposit rate, there have not been any new developments which mean that they should implement it. The euro is now trading at 1.3470.
Bloomberg had said Thursday that the ECB is considering a smaller-than-normal cut to the rate it pays lenders who park excess cash at the bank to minus 0.1%.
Data released from the Confederation of British Industry has revealed that growth in British manufacturing orders and production over the last three months has reached its strongest level for 18 years.
In the latest show of strength from the UK economy, 36% of firms reported that total order books were above normal in November and 25% said they were below, giving a positive balance of 11%, the highest since March 1995. The reading is a significant improvement from the minus 4% seen in October.
?This new evidence shows encouraging signs of a broadening and deepening recovery in the manufacturing sector," Stephen Gifford, CBI Director of Economics, said. "Manufacturers finally seem to be feeling the benefit of growing confidence and spending within the UK and globally."
Ahead of the Wall Street open, the FTSE 100 is close to flat at 6,683.29, the FTSE 250 is down 0.1% at 15,166.3, while the AIM All-Share is up 0.3% at 814.02
By James Kemp; [email protected]; @jamespkemp
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