US pre-open: Stocks seen touch higher ahead of data deluge

US futures pointed to a slightly firmer open on Wall Street following losses in the previous session, as investors braced for an avalanche of data releases.

At 1105 BST, Dow Jones Industrial, S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were all up 0.3%.

Meanwhile, oil prices were a touch stronger. West Texas Intermediate was up 0.5% at $43.79 a barrel and Brent crude was 0.7% higher at $46.16.

Corporate news was scarce. Drug discovery company Aerie Pharmaceuticals rocketed in pre-market trade after it reported a positive trial for its eye pressure drug.

Oracle Corp was due to report quarterly earnings after the close on Thursday.

Still, investors will have plenty to get their teeth into on the data front. US initial jobless claims, Empire manufacturing, the Philadelphia Fed survey, current account balance and retail sales figures are all due at 1330 BST. Industrial production is at 1415 BST and business inventories are at 1500 BST.

Societe Generale said: “Ahead of the Fed meeting next week, officials will get two key data points this week. The first will be on retail sales today, where we expect that the control group notched a modest rebound following a disappointing July result.

“The July weakness was centred in three of control group’s 10 categories, and we expect that they recovered in August, leading to a moderate increase, although the headline may have been flat again on the back of weaker outlays for autos.”

The next big data point will be Friday’s headline consumer price index, SocGen said.

Oanda’s Craig Erlam said that while the data is unlikely to influence the outcome of next week’s Fed decision at this stage, it could affect whether the central bank moves in December.

“Retail sales are a huge part of the US economy and while three of the last four months have been very good, the rest of the year has been quite disappointing. Some policy makers, including Lael Brainard, have suggested they want to see more evidence that spending will remain strong before voting for a hike which makes today’s data increasingly important.”