US pre-open: Stocks to open lower as WTI futures fall below $50

US futures pointed to a lower opening on Wall Street ahead of the release of weekly jobless claims numbers, while oil prices fell and the dollar strengthened on the back of Wednesday's strong ADP payrolls report.

Having closed mixed in the previous session, on Thursday morning at 1100 GMT the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were all flat.

On news of higher than expected US crude inventories on Wednesday oil stocks fell on fears of oversupply.

West Texas Intermediate was down 1.67% to $49.45 a barrel - the first time oil has been below $50 in 2017, while Brent crude was 1.5% weaker at $52.30.

The dollar extended its gains on Thursday on the back of strong ADP employment data, a precursor to Friday’s non-farm payrolls report, which according to analysts at Monex Europe was likely to increase already fever-pitch speculation that the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates at its next meeting on 14-15 March.

The ADP revealed that the US economy added 298,000 new private sector jobs in February, well ahead of the 187,000 expected and the 261,000 in the previous month.

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior market analyst at London Capital Group, said that consensus for the Friday’s non-farm payrolls is 200,00 versus the 237,000 printed a month earlier, with average hourly earnings expected to have improved by 0.3% month-on-month and the unemployment rate is seen a touch lower at 4.7% compared to 4.8% the previous month.

“Except for a big surprise, the US jobs data will likely have no impact on the Fed’s March expectations. As of today, the markets assess 100% probability for the Fed to raise the interest rates by 25 basis points next week”, she said.

The dollar was up 0.16% against the pound to 0.8231 and 0.32% higher against yen to 114.72.

Weekly initial jobless claims will be released at 1330 GMT, alongside import prices.

On the corporate front, Staples were up 2.05% in pre-market trade as the stationary giant and National Beverage Corp will release quarterly earnings before the open, while VeriFone Systems will report after markets close.

PPG Industries could be in focus after Akzo Nobel rejected a £22.1bn unsolicited takeover offer by the chemicals company.