US pre-open: Futures point to higher open; Alcoa, Blackberry, Alibaba in focus

US futures pointed to a positive open on Wall Street following heavy losses in the previous session and a suspension of trading on the New York Stock Exchange due to a technical fault, as a strong showing in China and Europe lent support.

Market analysts were expecting the Dow Jones Industrial Average to open up around 125 points, the S&P 500 around 15 points and the Nasdaq was seen around 35 points higher than Wednesday’s close.

“A recovery in global risk assets thanks to a bounce-back in Chinese equities is setting up US markets for a strong open on Thursday,” said Jasper Lawler, market analyst at CMC Markets.

“Markets in China had gotten heavily oversold in the past few days so the latest set of government measures including banning large shareholders from selling their shares for six months has helped trigger a bounce. The move higher in Shanghai has, temporarily at least, reduced fear of contagion into other markets.”

European stocks push higher as basic resources advance

European stocks were higher, with basic resources pacing the advance as investors continued to keep a close eye on Greece after Athens made a formal request on Wednesday for a new three-year bailout from the European Stability Mechanism.

Greece must present new proposals to its Eurozone creditors by the end of Thursday and will need to reach an agreement with them by Sunday. The main sticking points are expected to relate to pension cuts and tax increases.

Meanwhile, a rally in Chinese markets and firmer metals prices, with the exception of gold, also helped to underpin the tone in Europe, boosting basic-resource stocks, which are highly dependent on demand from China.

The dollar was firmer against the euro and the yen, and a touch weaker against the pound, while gold futures for August delivery were down 0.2% at $1,161.00 .

Oil pushed higher, with West Texas Intermediate up 2.5% at $52.94 a barrel and Brent crude up 2.4% at $58.39 a barrel.

Thursday data

Investors will eye the release of US initial jobless claims at 1330 BST.

On the corporate front, shares in Blackberry may be active on Thursday following reports that the mobile phone maker and enterprise software developer is planning to launch Android-based handsets that will also contain some of the prominent features of the Blackberry OS such as BSM.

Elsewhere, Alibaba was up 2.8% in pre-market trade amid reports the company is preparing to invest $100m in Mei.com.

Alcoa shares were higher in pre-market trading following steep declines in the previous session ahead of the company’s earnings. They came in below market expectations but the company sounded an upbeat note on prospects for the rest of the year.

PepsiCo was up 2.7% in pre-market trade after it raised its earnings forecasts for the year, while Walgreens Boots Alliance was also on the front foot after its third-quarter earnings per share beat expectations.