Wall Street Might Open Cautious In View Of Geopolitical Tensions

The new war front between Pakistan and Iran and its repercussions in the Middle East region might be influencing the markets on Thursday.

In the Asian session, oil edged higher.

The Jobless Claims, Housing Starts, and Philadelphia-area manufacturing activity might get the attention of investors. Earnings also will be important in the coming days.

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

Asian shares were mostly up while European shares are trading higher.

As of 7.30 am ET, the Dow futures were down 21.00 points, the S&P 500 futures were adding 20.50 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures were progressing 139.75 points.

The U.S. major averages remained in negative territory on Wednesday. The Dow dipped 94.45 points or 0.3 percent to 37,266.67, the Nasdaq slid 88.73 points or 0.6 percent to 14,855.62 and the S&P 500 fell 26.77 points or 0.6 percent to 4,739.21.

On the economic front, the Commerce, and Housing & Urban Development Department’s Housing Starts and Permits for December will be released at 8.30 am ET. The consensus for starts is for growth of 1.425 million, while it was up 1.560 million in the prior month. The consensus for permits is 1.478 million, while it was up 1.460 million in November.

The Labor Department’s Jobless Claims for the week is scheduled at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is for 206K, while it was up 202K in the previous week.

The Energy Information Administration or EIA’s Natural Gas Report for the week is expected at 10.30 am ET. In the prior week, the gas stock was at 140 bcf. The Petroleum Status report for the week is expected at 11.00 am ET. In the prior week, the crude oil inventories were up 1.3 million barrels and gasoline inventories were 8.00 million barrels.

Two-year Treasury Floating Rate Note or FRN and two-year Treasury Note auctions will be held at 11.00 am ET.

The Fed Balance Sheet for the week is scheduled at 4.30 pm ET. In the prior week, the level was up $7.687 trillion.

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

Asian shares ended mixed on Thursday. Chinese stocks fell sharply. The Shanghai Composite index ended 0.43 higher at 2,845.78. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index also fluctuated before ending 0.75 percent higher at 15,391.79.

Japanese markets ended on a flat note. The Nikkei average finished marginally lower at 35,466.17, while the broader Topix index slipped 0.17 percent to 2,492.09.

Australian stocks fell notably. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.63 percent to 7,346.50 while the broader All Ordinaries index closed down 0.62 percent at 7,575.60.

Business News