US pre-open: Futures mixed ahead of final session of Q1 trading

Wall Street futures were pointing to a mixed open ahead of the final session of first-quarter trading.

As of 1215 BST, Dow Jones futures were down 0.05%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.05% and 0.31% firmer, respectively.

The Dow closed 65.38 points lower on Wednesday as traders continued to monitor developments in Ukraine and mulled over a number of key data points.

Commodity prices were in focus prior to the open, with West Texas Intermediate futures dropping 5.91% to $101.45 per barrel and Brent crude futures sliding 5.64% to $107.05 a barrel after the Biden administration was said to be considering a plan to release 1.0m barrels of oil from its strategic petroleum reserve every day for roughly six months, according to NBC.

The White House said the president was scheduled to speak about "actions to reduce the impact of Putin's price hike on energy prices and lower gas prices at the pump for American families" later in the day.

Market participants also remained focussed on both the Federal Reserve's plans to tighten monetary policy in 2022 in order to fight a spike in US inflation and the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

On the macro front, Challenger job cuts data for March will be published at 1230 BST, while February's PCE price index and this week's jobless claims report from the Labor Department will follow at 1330 BST.

In the corporate space, Walgreens Boots Alliance will publish earnings later on in the session, while BlackBerry will report after the close.