Wall Street Targets To Open Positive Ahead Of Key Economic Announcements

Initial Jobless Claims, Existing Home Sales, as well as Fed speeches, might be the highlight on Thursday. Earnings reports also might get attention.

In more than 50 years, U.S. unmanned spacecraft will land on the moon today at 5.30 pm ET.

Early signs from the U.S. Futures Index suggest that Wall Street might open higher. Asian shares finished mostly up, while European shares are trading positive.

As of 7.30 am ET, the Dow futures were up 155.00 points, the S&P 500 futures were adding 63.00 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures were progressing 354.75 points.

The U.S. major averages finished mostly higher. The Dow and the S&P 500 bounced well off their worst levels. The tech-heavy Nasdaq closed lower for the third straight session. While the Nasdaq fell 49.91 points or 0.3 percent to 15,580.90, the Dow inched up 48.44 points or 0.1 percent to 38,612.24 and the S&P 500 crept up 6.29 points or 0.1 percent to 4,981.80.

On the economic front, the Jobless Claims for the week will be released at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is for 216K, while it was up 212K in the prior week.

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index for January will be revealed at 8.30 am ET. In the prior month, the Index was down 0.15.

The PMI Composite Flash Index for February will be issued at 9.45 am ET. The manufacturing consensus is 50.1, while the Services Index consensus is 52.0.

The Existing Home Sales for January is scheduled at 10.00 am ET. The consensus is for 3.98 million, while it was up 3.78 million in December.

The Quarterly Services Survey for the fourth quarter will be published at 10.00 am ET. In the prior quarter, the selected services revenue was up 0.5 percent.

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 down 49 bcf. EIA’s Petroleum status report is expected at 11.00 am ET. In the prior week, the crude oil inventories were up 12.0 million barrels and the gasoline inventories were down…