US pre-open: Futures in the red ahead of retail sales data, jobless claims

Wall Street futures were just in the red ahead of the bell on Thursday as investors awaited for last month's retail sales report later in the day.

As of 1225 BST, Dow Jones futures were down 0.01%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures were down 0.07% and 0.16%, respectively.

The Dow closed 236.82 points higher on Wednesday as major indices reclaimed some of the losses recorded in the previous session.

Thursday's primary focus will be August retail sales due out at 1330 BST, with sales expected to have decreased 0.8% month-over-month, and, as always, market participants will also be keeping an eye on this week's jobless claims data from the Department of Labor, also expected at 1330 BST, with economists expecting initial claims to have modestly increased from 310,000 to 320,000 in the seven days ended 11 September.

Elsewhere on the macro front, the Philadelphia Fed's September manufacturing index will be published at 1430 BST and July business inventories data was slated for release at 1500 BST.

Also in focus were concerns that a fresh security pact between Australia, the UK and the US may further escalate tensions between China and the US, with Beijing seen as being highly likely to reply in some form or another over the coming days.

AvaTrade's Naeem Aslam said: "This security pact could flare up tensions further between China and the US. China is not the country that investors like to see being push[ed] around as it is the second biggest economy in the world.

"Traders will also be following the US retail sales data very closely today and another dip in this data set fade the rebound for the three major US stock indices. Yesterday, investors were pleased with the New York Fed's Empire State business conditions index, which came in stronger than expected. Despite economic reports indicating a slowing of the business cycle and economic momentum, economic activity is quite likely to pick up and drive growth forward."

In the corporate space, Moderna shares were trading slightly higher prior to the open after the drugmaker published data on breakthrough Covid-19 cases that backed pushes for the widespread use of vaccine booster shots.

No major earnings were slated for release on Thursday.