Futures Pointing To Mixed Open On Wall Street

Following the sharp pullback seen on Wall Street on Wednesday, the major index futures are currently pointing to a mixed open on Thursday. While the Dow futures are up by 198 points, the Nasdaq 100 futures are down by 65 points.

Some sectors may benefit from bargain hunting following the substantial downturn seen over the course of the previous session.

News the first confirmed case of the omicron variant was detected in the U.S. contributed to the broad-based sell-off, with airline stocks leading the way lower.

The advance by the Dow futures may partly reflect significant pre-market strength among shares of aerospace giant Boeing (BA).

Boeing is moving notably higher after a report from Bloomberg said the new owners of Jet Airways India Ltd. are in talks with Boeing and Airbus to purchase at least 100 narrowbody jets for the once-bankrupt carrier’s fleet.

On the other hand, weakness among technology stocks may weigh on the tech-heavy Nasdaq, with shares of Apple (AAPL) moving notably lower in pre-market trading.

The drop by Apple comes after another report from Bloomberg said the tech giant told some of its parts suppliers that demand for iPhone 13 has slowed.

In U.S. economic news, the Labor Department released a report showing a modest rebound by initial jobless claims in the week ended November 27th.

The report said initial jobless claims rose to 222,000, an increase of 28,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 194,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to climb to 240,000 from the 199,000 originally reported for the previous week.

Stocks showed a strong move to the upside in early trading on Wednesday but pulled back sharply over the course of the session. With the downturn on the day, the Dow fell to a nearly two-month closing low, while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 hit their lowest closing levels in over a month.

The major averages saw further downside going into the close, ending the session at their worst levels of the day. The Dow tumbled 461.68 points or 1.3 percent at 34,022.04, the Nasdaq plunged 283.64 points or 1.8 percent to 15,254.05 and the S&P 500 slumped 53.96 points or 1.2 percent to 4,513.04.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance during trading on Thursday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index fell by 0.7 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose by 0.6 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets have all shown significant moves to the downside on the day. While the German DAX Index has plunged by 1.8 percent, the French CAC 40 Index is down by 1.5 percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index is down by 0.9 percent.

In commodities trading, crude oil futures are slipping $0.46 to $65.11 a barrel after falling $0.61 to $65.57 a barrel on Wednesday. Meanwhile, after climbing $7.80 to $1,784.30 an ounce in the previous session, gold futures are sliding $8.80 to $1,775.50 an ounce.

On the currency front, the U.S. dollar is trading at 112.83 yen versus the 112.78 yen it fetched at the close of New York trading on Wednesday. Against the euro, the dollar is valued at $1.1330 compared to yesterday’s $1.1320.