Futures Suggests Wall Street To Open Moderately Up

The weekly Jobless Claims, Existing Home Sales reports as well as Philadelphia-area Manufacturing Activity might be the highlights on Thursday.

Walmart Inc. reported a decline in first-quarter earnings, however, beat estimates. Revenues were up 7.6 percent from the previous year. Looking ahead the retailer giant expects earnings in a range of $6.10-$6.20 per share.

Early cues from the U.S. Futures Index suggest that Wall Street might open moderately up.

Asian shares closed mostly higher, while European shares are trading broadly up.

As of 7.45 am ET, the Dow futures were up 17.00 points, the S&P 500 futures were adding 8.50 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures were progressing 34.00 points.

The U.S. major averages finished Wednesday with strong gains. The Dow jumped 408.63 points or 1.2 percent to 33,420.77, the Nasdaq spiked 157.51 points or 1.3 percent to 12,500.57 and the S&P 500 surged 48.87 points or 1.2 percent to 4,158.77.

On the economic front, the Jobless Claims for the week will be released at 8.30 am ET. The consensus for initial claims is 255K, while it was up 264K in the prior week.

The Fed Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index for May is scheduled at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is negative 20.0, while it was negative 31.3 in April.

The National Association of Realtors’ Existing Home Sales for April will be revealed at 10.00 am ET. The consensus is for growth of 4.295 million, while it was up 4.44 million in March.

E-Commerce Retail Sales for the first quarter will be issued at 10.00 am ET. In the prior quarter, the retail sales were down 0.1 percent.

The Fed Balance sheet will be published at 4.30 pm ET. In the prior week, the Level was up $8.503 trillion.

Five-year and seven-year Treasury Note Auctions will be held at 11.00 am ET.

Ten-year Treasury Inflation-Protection Securities or TIPS auction will be held at 1.00 pm ET.

Asian stocks advanced on Thursday. Chinese shares eked out modest gains. The benchmark Shanghai Composite gained 0.40 percent to 3,297.32.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index climbed 0.85 percent to 19,727.25, led by technology shares.

Japanese shares rallied on Thursday.

Australian markets posted solid gains. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.52 percent to 7,236.80 while the broader All Ordinaries index closed 0.51 percent higher at 7,427.

European shares are trading mostly higher. CAC 40 of France is adding 67.99 points or 0.92 percent. DAX of Germany is progressing 264.44 points or 1.66 percent. FTSE 100 of England is gaining 38.24 points or 0.52 percent. The Swiss Market Index is up 66.58 points or 0.70 percent.

Euro Stoxx 50 which provides a Blue-chip representation of supersector leaders in the Eurozone, is down 1.23 percent.

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