Investing.com - Wall Street futures pointed to flat to lower open on Thursday as investors took a pause after the Dow hit another record high a day earlier and investors looked ahead to data for signs of the continued strength of the U.S. labor market and economy.
The blue-chip Dow futures slipped 6 points, or 0.03% by 7:07AM ET (11:0GMT), the S&P 500 futures dropped 1 point, or 0.05%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures edged forward 3 points, or 0.05%.
The Federal Reserve offered few surprises on Wednesday, forging ahead with its well-flagged plan to reduce its balance sheet and confirming that it still expected to raise interest rates this year, despite the fact that Fed chair Janet Yellen admitted that she found the persistent low levels of inflation to be a mystery.
The lack of surprises allowed both the Dow and the S&P 500 to finish in higher territory, though bulls looked set to take a pause on Thursday.
In that backdrop, investors looked ahead to weekly jobless claims and the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index, both out at 8:30AM ET (12:30GMT), as they look for signs of continued strength in the labor market and the manufacturing sector in the Philly region.
On the company front, Alphabet's (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google said it would pay $1.1 billion for the division at Taiwan's HTC that develops the U.S. firm's Pixel smartphones as the Internet giant looks to up the game on its Android platform.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) was also in headlines on a report that Elon Musk’s firm was working with Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) to develop its own artificial intelligence chip for self-driving cars.
Meanwhile, oil prices moved lower on Thursday as investors cashed in on gains that had taken crude more than 1% higher this week.
Investors looked ahead to a meeting of oil producers that could extend production limits aimed at clearing a glut that has depressed the market for more than three years.
Ministers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and other producers meet in Vienna on Friday and are due to consider extending output cuts that began in January, although some energy ministers have suggested than decision before next March could be premature.
U.S. crude futures fell 0.91% to $50.23 by 7:09AM ET (11:09GMT), while Brent oil lost 0.73% to $55.88.
Elsewhere, European shares traded mostly higher as the region’s banks celebrated higher interest rates that should support profits. At 6:05AM ET (10:05GMT), the European benchmark Euro Stoxx 50 gained 0.54%, while Germany’s DAX rose 0.31%. However, London's FTSE 100 fell 0.24% as miners put pressure on the British index.
Earlier, Asian equity markets closed with mixed signs as the investors digested the news out of the U.S. Japan’s Nikkei ended with gains of 0.2%, though China’s Shanghai Composite closed around 0.2% lower.
In Asian news, the Bank of Japan held policy steady as expected after the conclusion of its two-day meeting on Thursday, with no change to rates or the asset buying program focused on the yield curve at ¥80 trillion annually.
Also out Thursday, Standard & Poor's cut China's debt rating amid concerns that credit is growing too quickly in the world's second-largest economy.