US pre-open: Futures point to modest losses as traders remain focussed on earnings

Wall Street futures were in the red ahead of the bell on Thursday as market participants remained focussed on quarterly earnings figures.

As of 1300 BST, Dow Jones futures were down 0.23%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.01% and 0.03% weaker, respectively.

The Dow Jones closed 79.62 points lower on Wednesday as investors responded to the latest round of quarterly earnings from the likes of Morgan Stanley.

Tesla was in focus prior to the open after the electric carmaker revealed that both net income and GAAP earnings had slumped more than 20% year-on-year, while IBM shares traded higher after announcing that margins had expanded.

Still to come, AT&T, American Express, Dr Horton, Snap-On, Philip Morris and Seagate Technology will all report earnings on Thursday.

On the macro front, weekly jobless claims data from the Labor Department will be published at 1330 BST, as will the Philadelphia Federal Reserve's April manufacturing index, while the Conference Board's leading index and existing home sales for March will follow at 1500 BST.

Later on, Federal Reserve bankers Christopher Waller and Michele Bowman will deliver speeches at 1700 BST and 2000 BST, respectively.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com