US pre-open: Futures point to early losses ahead of multiple data points
Wall Street futures were in the red ahead of the bell on Thursday as market participants looked ahead to a number of key data points scheduled for later in the day.
As of 1215 BST, Dow Jones and S&P 500 futures were down 0.12%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.18% and 0.34% lower, respectively.
The Dow closed just 30.12 points higher on Wednesday, doing very little to regain the previous session's heavy CPI-fuelled losses.
Thursday's primary focus will be August's retail sales data and the Labor Department's all-important weekly jobless claims figures at 1330 BST, with the latter expected to show first-time claims increase by 4,000 week-on-week to 226,000.
Also drawing an amount of investor attention was news that President Joe Biden had struck a tentative agreement that will see rail workers receive better pay, improved working conditions, and "peace of mind" around health care costs.
"I thank the unions and rail companies for negotiating in good faith and reaching a tentative agreement that will keep our critical rail system working and avoid disruption of our economy," said Biden.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury was roughly three basis points higher at 3.442%, while the yield on the 2-year Treasury bond was up roughly four basis points at 3.827%.
Elsewhere on the macro front, September's Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index and the so-called NY Empire State manufacturing index will also be published at 1330 BST, while industrial production figures for August and July business inventories data will follow at 1415 BST and 1500 BST, respectively.
In the corporate space, software giant Adobe will report earnings after the close.
Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com