US pre-open: Futures in the green following Wednesday's losses

Wall Street stocks were in the green ahead of the bell on Thursday as major indices looked set to bounce back from the previous session's losses.

As of 1230 BST, Dow Jones futures were up 0.34%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.39% and 0.48% firmer, respectively.

The Dow closed 269.24 points lower on Wednesday, snapping a two-day winning streak for the blue-chip index.

Investor sentiment got a boost prior to the open on Thursday after Bloomberg reported that China may be willing to let Jack Ma's Ant Group go ahead with its initial public offering, indicating that Beijing may now very well be looking to dial back its tech crackdown and sending US-listed shares in Alibaba more than 4% higher in the process. The sudden scuttling of Ant's IPO back in November 2020, just days before the fintech giant was set to go public, came as China sought to make changes to the sector's regulatory environment.

Market participants will also be digesting headlines from the European Central Bank, with the ECB, which sets monetary policy for the Eurozone, announcing its monetary policy decision later in the morning.

Treasury yields remained elevated on Thursday, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year note ticking up slightly to 3.023% before the open, while US benchmark West Texas Intermediate oil futures eased off 0.38% to $121.65 per barrel.

On the macro front, the Labor Department's weekly jobless claims report will be published at 1330 BST, with economists expecting to see a modest uptick in first-time claims from 200,000 to 210,000 over the seven days ended 4 June.

No major corporate earnings were slated for release on Thursday.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com