Wall Street Might Open Modestly Up

(RTTNews) - Weekly Jobless Claims might be the main economic announcement on Thursday.

The spreading of COVID-19 infections in China and other countries is again growing as a concern for investors. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has announced its plans to implement a negative COVID-19 test and documentation of recovery requirement from air passengers from the People's Republic of China, special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau to enter the United States.

As the Russian invasion is expanding, Ukraine suffered a series of night attacks on Wednesday with self-exploding drones and several regions are under power outages.

As of 7.10 am ET, the Dow futures were up 80.00 points, the S&P 500 futures were adding 17.50 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures were progressing 72.75 points.

The U.S. major averages finished Wednesday's session just off their worst levels of the day. The Nasdaq plunged 139.94 points or 1.4 percent to 10,213.29, the S&P 500 dove 46.03 points or 1.2 percent to 3,783.22 and the Dow tumbled 365.85 points or 1.1 percent to 32,875.71.

On the economic front, the Labor Department's Jobless Claims for the week will be issued at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is 222K, while it was up 216K in the prior week. The Energy Information Administration or EIA's Natural Gas Report for the week will be released at 10.30 am ET. In the prior week, the gas stock was down 87 bcf. EIA's Petroleum Status report for the week is scheduled at 11.00 am ET. In the prior week, Crude Oil Inventories were down 5.9 million barrels and Gasoline Inventories were up 2.5 million barrels.

Seven-year Treasury Note auction will be held at 1.00 pm ET. The Fed Balance Sheet for the week will be issued at 4.30 am ET. In the prior week, the level was at $8.564 trillion.

Asian stocks fell on Thursday. China's Shanghai Composite index dropped 0.44 percent to 3,073.70.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 0.79 percent to 19,741.14.

Japanese shares tumbled. The Nikkei average hit its lowest levels in nearly three months before ending 0.94 percent lower at 26,093.67.

The broader Topix index ended down 0.72 percent at 1,895.27.

Australian markets ended at seven-week lows. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.94 percent to 7,020.10 while the broader All Ordinaries index settled 0.89 percent lower at 7,197.30.

European shares are trading mostly higher. CAC 40 of France is gaining 4.46 points or 0.07 percent. DAX of Germany is adding 21.99 points or 0.16 percent. FTSE 100 of England is declining 9.75 points or 0.13 percent. The Swiss Market Index is down 20.03 points or 0.18 percent.

Euro Stoxx 50 which provides a Blue-chip representation of supersector leaders in the Eurozone, is up 0.17 percent.