US pre-open: Futures higher going into penultimate session of 2022

Wall Street futures were pointing to modest gains ahead of the bell on Thursday but stocks remained firmly on course for a losing year.

As of 1155 GMT, Dow Jones futures were up 0.18%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.39% and 0.64% firmer, respectively.

The Dow closed 365.85 points lower on Wednesday, easily reversing small gains recorded in the previous session.

In focus early on Thursday, the US has joined India, Italy, Japan, and Taiwan in requiring negative Covid tests for travellers from China. The move comes as China battles a surge in coronavirus infections while also attempting to dismantle its zero-tolerance approach to the virus amid low vaccination rates, particularly among the elderly.

Swissquote's Ipek Ozkardeskaya said: "The good news with China's reopening is that it should boost global growth. The bad news with China's reopening is that it will not only boost global growth, but also energy and commodity prices - hence inflation, the interest rate hikes from central banks and potentially the global Covid cases – which could then give birth to a new, and a dangerous Covid variant, which would, in return, bring the restrictive Covid measures back on the table, and hammer growth.

"Note that the reasoning stops here right now, the risky markets are painted in the red, but we could eventually go one step further and say that if the Chinese reopening hits the global health situation – hence the economy badly, the central banks could become softer on their rate hike strategies. But no one is cheery enough to see silver lining anywhere. This year really needs to end, now!"

On the macro front, weekly jobless claims data will be published at 1330 GMT, with economists expecting to see initial jobless claims rise to 223,000, up from 216,000 a week earlier.

No major corporate earnings were slated for release on Thursday.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com