Investing.com – Wall Street futures pointed to a lower open on Thursday as tension between the U.S. and North Korea continued to weigh on equities and investors looked ahead to a string of key economic data, comments from a key member of the Federal Reserve (Fed) and quarterly earnings.
The blue-chip Dow futures fell 55 points, or 0.25%, at 6:52AM ET (10:52GMT), the S&P 500 futures lost 10 points, or 0.41%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures traded down 36 points, or 0.61%.
The face-off between North Korea and the U.S. continued to dampen bullish sentiment for stocks on Thursday as Pyongyang hit back at threats from President Donald Trump, branding his warnings as a "load of nonsense".
North Korea upped the ante, announcing plans to launch four rockets near the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam by mid-August and indicating that preparations should be ready in a matter of days.
Stocks in both Asia and Europe were under pressure while risk-off sentiment pushed gold to a fresh two-month peak.
For Thursday’s session, investors looked ahead to a key batch of U.S. economic data to gauge how it will impact the Fed's view on monetary policy.
Reports on producer prices (PPI) for July and weekly jobless claims are both due at 8:30AM ET (12:30GMT).
With the U.S. labor market considered to be solid, attention will likely focus on factory inflation ahead of Friday’s publication of the consumer price index.
Subdued inflation has caused doubts that the Fed will be unable to move ahead with the continued removal of accommodative policies, though officials have classified recent trends as “transitory”.
In the same light, market participants will look to an appearance from New York Fed president William Dudley, permanent voter on the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) that decides on policies, delivers remarks on employment trends and wage inequality at 10:00AM ET (14:00GMT).
As the reporting season moves into its final phase, investors will digest earnings form department stores Macy's (NYSE:M) and Kohl’s (NYSE:KSS) ahead of the opening bell.
Recent IPOs, including Blue Apron (NYSE:APRN) and Canada Goose (NYSE:GOOS), will also post results ahead of the open
After the closing bell, earnings are due from NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA), Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN), Snap (NYSE:SNAP) and News Corp (NASDAQ:NWSA).
Meanwhile, oil prices extended gains Thursday, as data showing a sixth consecutive week of declines in U.S. crude inventories added to optimism that the market was rebalancing.
Also on Thursday, market players seemed to look past that fact that OPEC's monthly report confirmed that compliance with the output agreement dropped to 86%.
According to secondary sources, OPEC crude oil production rose by 0.173 million barrels per day (bpd) to an average of 32.87 million bpd with increases occurring mainly in Libya, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia.
U.S. crude futures gained 0.56% to $49.84 by 6:53AM ET (10:53GMT), while Brent oil rose 0.80% to $53.12.