US Stock Futures Point To Higher Open; Jobless Claims Data In Focus

Stock futures point to a higher open following a mixed day in the markets on Wednesday when minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee’s December meeting showed that the Federal Reserve intends to proceed with caution in tapering its bond-buying program.

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.2 percent while futures on the S&P 500 were up 0.28 percent and those on the Nasdaq 100 were up 0.21 percent.

According to a note from Capital Economics, though the Fed is expected to gradually scale back its monetary stimulus in 2014, “monetary policy in the US and elsewhere is set to remain highly accommodative.”

On the data front, the jobless claims number for the week ended Jan. 4 is due to be released at 8:30 a.m. EST and a Wall Street Journal consensus estimate pegs it at 331,000, which is down from 339,000 in the previous week.

In Europe, stocks were trading higher with the Stoxx Europe 600 index up 0.28 percent while the FTSE 100 was up 0.31 percent. Germany’s DAX-30 was up 0.4 percent while France's CAC-40 was up 0.26 percent.

In Asia, markets were mostly down with Japan’s Nikkei falling 1.5 percent while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 ended up 0.16 percent. South Korea’s Kospi, on the other hand, was down 0.66 percent. The Shanghai Composite index was down 0.82 percent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.91 percent. India’s BSE Sensex slipped 0.08 percent.