By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - U.S. stocks are set to edge lower Thursday, with investors wary ahead of key unemployment data and amid tensions over the early reopening of some states still gripped by the coronavirus pandemic.
At 07:10 AM ET (1110 GMT), S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures were both essentially flat. The Dow futures contract fell 33 points, or 0.1%.
The main focus Thursday will be on the weekly initial jobless claims, at 8:30 AM ET (1230 GMT), which is widely seen as the best gauge of the economic damage caused by the shutdowns .
Economists are expecting a smaller, but still historically huge, rise in claims of 4.2 million, compared with the week before. That would bring the total number of newly unemployed to more than 26 million in the past five weeks.
Later Thursday, IHS Markit will release its preliminary purchasing managers’ index for April. Judging by the European equivalents, the news will not be good.
Given these numbers, some states are very keen to reopen their economies, despite the risk of a surge in infections if done too quickly. This has created tension with the federal government.
President Donald Trump said late Wednesday that he strongly disagrees with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp's plan to reopen part of that state's economy, the most ambitious reopening announced by any state so far. Trump's comments come less than a week after he incited citizens in other states last week to protest against lockdown measures.
The pandemic has infected more than 840,000 people in the U.S., according to the latest figures from Johns Hopkins University, killing over 46,000.
On the earnings front, Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) will bring attention to the chip sector after the bell. Analysts expect the company to report a profit of $1.28 per share on revenue of about $18.6 billion.
Shares in Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) gained over 2% premarket after the pharmaceutical company reported a 15% rise in quarterly sales.Domino’s Pizza (NYSE:DPZ) will also report before the bell, and is another company expected to have shown resilience during the lockdown.
Oil surged on Thursday, while remaining at low levels, with President Trump adding some geopolitical risk into the equation by threatening Iran.
The mood was also helped by the Oklahoma's energy regulator saying late Wednesday that companies could shut wells without losing their leases.
This is the latest sign that U.S. producers are cutting production to weather a collapse in demand as the coronavirus outbreak ravages world economies.
At 7:10 AM ET, U.S. crude traded 12.6% higher at $15.52 a barrel, having risen around a fifth in the previous session. The international benchmark Brent contract rose 7.9% to $21.98.
Elsewhere, gold futures rose 0.9% to $1,754.80/oz, while EUR/USD traded at $1.0780, down 0.4%.