US pre-open: Stocks seen touch higher as Comey testimony eyed

US futures suggested a marginally firmer open on Wall Street on Thursday as investors looked to key events, including the testimony of former FBI boss James Comey and a general election in the UK.

At 1040 BST, Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were all up 0.1%.

As well as the UK election and Comey's testimony about Russia's alleged involvement in the US presidential election, attention will turn to a European Central Bank meeting, particularly after a leaked draft of staff projections showed the central bank is revising its GDP forecasts higher but cutting its inflation forecasts through 2019, a move that would push a potential rate hike further down the road.

CMC Markets analyst David Madden said: "The GBP/USD is edging higher as we have seen some softening of the US dollar overnight. The UK general election and the testimony by the former head of the FBI, James Comey, will keep traders’ minds focused. It is likely we will see the currency pair remain within a tight trading range as two major events are taking place today. Since the UK general election was called, the Conservatives have been faring better in the polls, but that lead has been in decline and some dealers have been spooked by that. Traders also remember last month’s big sell-off in the US dollar when the Russian related scandal surrounded President Trump, and that could be triggered again, depending on Mr Comey’s testimony.

"In the US, we are expecting the Dow Jones to open 13 points higher at 21,186, and we are calling the S&P 500 up 1 point at 2334. Dell Technologies will reveal their quarterly figures today. In terms of economic announcements, US jobless claims will be revealed at 1330 BST, and the market is expecting 241,000, and that compares with the previous report of 248,000."

Comey's prepared remarks to the Senate Intelligence Committee were released on Wednesday. In the statement, he said he understood Trump was asking him to drop a probe into former national security adviser Michael Flynn and pressured him to publicly declare that he was not under investigation.

According to the remarks, Comey is set to say that Trump asked him for “loyalty” four months before he fired him as Federal Bureau of Investigation director over what he called the “Russia thing”.

In corporate news, Yahoo was higher in pre-market trade after it emerged late on Wednesday that as many as 1,000 jobs could be lost due to the expected combination of Yahoo and AOL.