US pre-open: Futures mixed as earnings stream in ahead of jobless data

Wall Street futures were mixed ahead of the bell on Thursday as market participants thumbed over more bank earnings and awaited this week's key jobless claims report from the Labor Department.

As of 1215 BST, Dow Jones and S&P 500 futures were down 0.54% and 0.34%, respectively, while Nasdaq-100 futures had the index opening 0.11% firmer.

The Dow closed 44.44 points higher on Wednesday as investors digested earnings from several of the nation's biggest banks.

Comments from Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell yesterday were still in focus ahead of the bell on Thursday, with the central bank's head easing investor fears regarding a rollback of the Fed's easy policies happening anytime too soon, even in the face of inflation.

"At our June meeting, the Committee discussed the economy's progress toward our goals since we adopted our asset purchase guidance last December. While reaching the standard of ‘substantial further progress' is still a ways off, participants expect that progress will continue," Powell said.

Corporate earnings were again in focus prior to the open, with Bank of New York Mellon saying quarterly earnings per share had grown 12% year-on-year to $1.13 despite total revenues slipping 1% to $4.0bn in the three months ended 30 June as the group's investments in digitisation and open-architecture modular solutions continued to pay off.

US Bancorp posted second-quarter revenues of $5.78bn and earnings per share of $1.28, beating estimates for prints of $5.62bn and $1.14, respectively, while UnitedHealth posted a 35.7% fall in quarterly profits as a recovery in the elective medical care market normalised costs for the US' largest health insurer.

Morgan Stanley was also slated to report before the opening bell.

On the macro front, this week's jobless claims data from the Department of Labor will be posted at 1330 BST, with economists expecting to see 360,000 Americans signing up for state unemployment benefits for the week ended 10 July, while the Philadelphia Fed's July manufacturing index will also be released at 1330 BST.

June industrial production figures will follow at 1415 BST and testimony from Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell in front of the Senate Banking Committee will begin at 1430 BST.

Also in focus, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note shed three basis points to 1.33%