US pre-open: Stocks seen touch lower ahead of jobless claims, Chicago PMI

US futures pointed to a marginally lower open on Wall Street as investors looked to the release of some key data points.

“US jobless claims and Chicago PMI numbers provide the main event for markets this afternoon, but it looks like Wall Street will follow the trend seen in Asia and Europe and post modest losses on the open. With oil prices still heading lower, equities are on the back foot, a state of affairs that may point to weakness for the opening few days of April,” said Chris Beauchamp, senior market analyst at IG.

At 1105 BST, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 0.1% while S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were 0.2% weaker.

At the same time, oil prices were in the red after data on Wednesday from the Energy Information Administration showed US crude stockpiles rose 2.3m barrels to 534.8m in the week to 25 March 25. This was the seventh week at record highs.

West Texas Intermediate was down 1.1% to $37.91 a barrel and Brent crude was 0.7% lower at $39.00.

On the corporate front, Tesla Motors was likely to be in focus as the company was expected to unveil a prototype of the Model 3, which is a $35,000 electric sedan, at an event later on Thursday.

Still to come on the macroeconomic front, US initial jobless claims are at 1330 BST while Chicago PMI is at 1445 BST.

Jobless claims are expected to show a reading of 265,000.

Markus Huber, senior analyst at Peregrine & Black, said: “Traders are especially eager to see if the Chicago PMI will be able to rebound after last month's reading of well below the important 50 level. Another weak reading could stir major worries concerning overall US growth in the months ahead.”

In currencies, the dollar was up 0.1% against the pound, 0.3% weaker versus the euro and 0.2% lower against the yen.