In pre-market trading, US equity futures registered narrow gains as investors absorbed a wave of economic indicators released this week. Notably, jobless claims and retail sales data shaped traders’ perspectives ahead of Thursday's market opening bell. The futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average experienced a gain of 0.4%, following suit, the S&P 500 futures increased by 0.2%, and the Nasdaq futures saw an uptick of 0.3%.
Alongside the equity futures, oil prices also experienced a rise; specifically, the North Sea Brent crude, which is the global benchmark, climbed by 1.1%, reaching a price of $80.61 per barrel. The US West Texas Intermediate crude saw a similar ascent, with an increase of 1.2%, bringing the price to $77.88 per barrel.
The latest figures revealed that new jobless claims dropped to 227,000 for the week ending August 10, a decrease from the previous week’s 234,000 claims, and notably below Bloomberg’s estimate, which projected a rise to 235,000 claims. Additionally, retail sales showed a robust growth of 1% in July, a rebound from the 0.2% decrease observed in June, significantly surpassing the consensus estimate that anticipated only a 0.4% increase.
The Empire State Manufacturing Index reported a reading of minus 4.7 for August, a slight improvement from July's minus 6.6 but still missing the expectations which were set around minus 6.0. In terms of import and export prices, import prices saw a marginal increase of 0.1% in July, contrary to the forecasts which expected a downtick of 0.1%, while export prices rose by 0.7%, surpassing expectations of no change.
Industrial production figures, which are due for release at 9:15 am ET, are anticipated to decline by 0.3% for July, following a 0.6% increase in June. Concurrently, business inventories set to be released at 10 am ET are projected to increase by 0.3% in June. Analysts predict that the US housing market index will record a level of 43 for August against the prior month's 42.
Looking globally, Japan's Nikkei index closed higher by 0.8%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng slid slightly by 0.02%. China's Shanghai Composite Index finished up by 0.9%. Over in Europe, the UK's FTSE 100 and Germany's DAX index noted gains of 0.2% and 0.4%, respectively, during the early afternoon session.
On the equity front, notables include Walmart, where shares surged by 8% in the pre-bell market after the retailer reported fiscal Q2 revenues that exceeded analysts' projections and also raised the fiscal year 2025 adjusted profit guidance. Cisco saw a remarkable rise of 7.7% in shares after it reported adjusted profits and revenues for fiscal Q4 that also beat expectations.
Ulta Beauty's stock skyrocketed by 11% following Berkshire Hathaway's disclosure of acquiring a stake in the beauty retailer. Conversely, Titan Machinery faced more than a 25% drop in shares after the company announced preliminary Q2 earnings and revenue that fell short of market expectations and reduced its fiscal 2025 profit outlook.
Spire Global shares also suffered, plummeting over 25% due to the announcement of a delay in filing its Q2 report on Form 10-Q..