US pre-open: Futures trade higher ahead of bank earnings

Wall Street futures were in the green ahead of the bell on Thursday as market participants braced for quarterly earnings from a number of the country's largest banks.

As of 1225 BST, Dow Jones and S&P 500 futures were up 0.22% and 0.06%, respectively, while Nasdaq-100 futures had the index opening 0.14% higher.

The Dow closed 344.23 points higher on Wednesday despite yet another red-hot inflation report.

Corporate earnings will be the flavour du jour, with Wells Fargo shares down in pre-market after beating on profits but missing on revenues. Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley were also slated to report quarterly earnings before the opening bell.

In other corporate ness, Twitter stock surged prior to the open after Tesla chief executive Elon Musk disclosed a buyout bid for the social media giant at an 18% premium.

On the macro front, March retail sales and this week's jobless claims report will be published at 1330 BST, while a preliminary reading of April's University of Michigan consumer sentiment index and February business inventory data will follow at 1500 BST.