By Nagendra Padala: Subscribe to Nagendra's RSS feed
September 2, 2010 11:09 AM EDT
Futures on major U.S. indices remained range bound on Thursday after rally in previous session as investors’ await jobs and housing data, which will give more clues about the strength of the economic recovery.
Futures on the S&P 500 are down 0.22 percent, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average are down 0.21 percent and Nasdaq100 futures are down 0.14 percent.
Investors are likely to focus on weekly initial jobless claims and nonfarm productivity which are due to release before market opens, while monthly pending home sales and factory orders will be released after market opens.
Ahead of the Friday's August nonfarm payrolls report, the Department of Labor is due to report the initial jobless claims data at 8:30 am EDT. The economists forecast initial jobless claims to be 475,000 for the week ended August 29 against 473,000 of the previous week. Any data that is weaker than expected will weigh on market sentiments.
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US non-farm productivity is expected to decline and pending home sales are expected to remain unchanged in July after declining 2.6 percent in June, while July factory orders are expected to show growth after declining 1.2 percent in the prior month.
On Wednesday, stock markets started September with a strong rally as manufacturing in both China and the U.S. for August expanded at a faster pace compared to July and exceeded the forecast of economists.
Before market opens:
• European stocks declined on Thursday after Wednesday’s rally as investors pause for profit taking and await interest rate decision from the European Central Bank.
• European markets are currently trading lower with FTSE 100 down by 10.70 points, DAX30 down by 18.82 points and CAC 40 down by 7.65 points.
• Eurozone’s economic activity increased by 1 percent during the second quarter of 2010 compared to the previous quarter, according to the first estimate released by Eurostat. On the yearly basis, the economy expanded by 1.9 percent, compared with the previous and the expected 1.7 percent.
• UK’s house prices declined for the second consecutive month in August, the first two consecutive months decline since February 2009. House prices declined 0.9 percent in August compared to the previous month, while the three-month price change was flat.
• Sweden's central bank raised its key repo rate for the second time since July as the economy is continuing to show strong growth. Key repo rate increased by 0.25 percentage points to 0.75 percent. The country’s economy is expected to grow 4.5 percent this year.
• The euro advanced 0.10 percent to 1.2821 against the dollar and the yen rose 0.20 percent against the greenback.
• Crude oil futures declined 0.34 percent and copper futures advanced 0.30 percent. In precious metal sector, gold futures advanced 0.05 percent and silver futures rose 0.53 percent.
During Asian market hours:
• Asian stock markets surged on Thursday, following Wall Street overnight rally on better than expected US manufacturing data. Japanese Nikkei climbed 1.52 percent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.19 percent.
• Chinese benchmark Shanghai composite advanced 1.25 percent. Chinese automakers shares advanced after passenger-car sales grew 59 percent in August.
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