Wall Street Target To Open In Positive Territory

A slew of U.S. economic announcements might get attention today. The weekly Jobless Claims, Retail Sales, and Producer Price Inflation might be of special interest to investors.

Asian shares finished positive, while European shares are mostly up.

Early signs from the U.S. Futures Index suggest that Wall Street might open higher.

As of 7.45 am ET, the Dow futures were up 88.00 points, the S&P 500 futures were adding 16.00 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures were progressing 56.50 points.

The U.S. major averages eventually ended Wednesday’s session mixed. While the Dow dipped 70.46 points or 0.2 percent to 34,575.53, the S&P 500 inched up 5.54 points or 0.1 percent to 4,467.44 and the Nasdaq rose 39.97 points or 0.3 percent to 13,813.59.

On the economic front, the Jobless Claim for the week is scheduled at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is 225K, while in the prior week, the claims were up 216K.

The PPI-Final Demand for August will be issued at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is for an increase of 0.4 percent, while it was up 0.3 percent in the prior month.

The Retails sales for August will be announced at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is for an increase of 0.2 percent, compared to an increase of 0.7 percent in July.

The Business Inventories for July is scheduled at 10.00 am ET. The consensus is for growth of 0.1 percent, while it was 0.0 percent in the previous month.

The Energy Information Administration or EIA’s Natural Gas Report for the week will be revealed at 10.30 am ET. In the prior week, the gas stock was up 33 bcf.

A ten-year Treasury Inflation Protected Securities or TIPS auction will be held at 11.00 am ET.

Twenty-year Treasury Bond Auction will be held at 11.00 am ET.

The Fed Balance sheet for the week will be released at 4.30 pm ET. In the prior week, the level was at $.101 trillion.

Asian stocks rose broadly on Thursday. Chinese stocks ended slightly higher. The Shanghai Composite index edged up 0.11 percent to 3,126.55 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.21 percent to 18,047.92.

Japanese shares rallied. The Nikkei average jumped 1.41 percent to 33,168.10, marking a one-week high.

The broader Topix index closed 1.13 percent higher at 2,405.57.

Australian markets advanced. The benchmark S&P ASX 200 rose 0.46 percent to 7,186.50 while the broader All Ordinaries index settled half a percent higher at 7,382.70.

European shares are trading mostly higher. CAC 40 of France is gaining 4.22 points or 0.06 percent. DAX of Germany is declining 5.49 points or 0.04 percent. FTSE 100 of England is progressing 69.99 points or 0.93 percent. The Swiss Market Index is up 14.83 points or 0.14 percent.

Euro Stoxx 50 which provides a Blue-chip representation of supersector leaders in the Eurozone, is up 0.15 percent.

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