US pre-open: Stocks seen broadly flat on final trading day of 2015

US stock futures pointed to a muted open on Wall Street on the final day of 2015, with Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 futures both up just 0.1%.

Although many markets were closed on Thursday, with France and the UK open for just a half day, traders in the US will have to wait a little longer to kick off their New Year celebrations as Wall Street will be observing normal trading hours.

European markets were unsurprisingly quiet, with the benchmark Stoxx 600 index and France's CAC both a touch higher in thin volumes, while Germany's DAX was closed.

In Asia, stock markets finished the year on a fairly downbeat note as weaker oil prices weighed.

With no real impetus from US markets to draw from and a raft of markets either closed or only trading for a half day on New Year's Eve, there was little inspiration for investors or traders.

China's benchmark Shanghai Composite closed its final session of the year 33.69 points, or 0.94% lower at 3,539.18, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index closed up just 0.15% at 21,914.40.

In commodity markets, oil prices steadied following more heavy falls in the previous session, with West Texas Intermediate up 0.4% at $36.74 a barrel and Brent crude up 0.6% at $36.67.

Oil prices tanked on Tuesday after the US Energy Information Administration reported a 2.6m barrel expansion in domestic crude stockpiles on the back of higher imports and production. Analysts had been expecting the EIA to report a drop in stockpiles.

On the corporate front, shares of Chimerix Inc may rise at the open after hedge fund billionaire Steven A. Cohen’s investment firm announced a 5.3% stake in the biotech company.

In currencies, the dollar was little changed against its major rivals, trading just 0.1% lower against the pound and 0.2% weaker versus the yen, but 0.2% higher against the euro.

On the macroeconomic calendar, initial jobless claims at 1330 GMT will be the only release of note.