Investing.com – U.S. futures pointed to a higher opening bell on Thursday as investors look ahead to a flurry of economic data later in the day.
The S&P 500 futures rose three points or 0.12% as of 6:42 AM ET (11:42 GMT) while Dow futures increased 71 points or 0.29%. Meanwhile tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures was up over 11 points or 0.17%.
Wall Street seems set to continue its rise into the new year, with the S&P 500 closing above 2,700 for the first time on Wednesday.
Investors will be pouring over economic data ahead of the nonfarm payrolls data on Friday for signs of how the U.S. economy is doing. The ADP national employment report comes out at 8:15 AM ET (13:15 GMT) followed by jobless claims at 8:30 AM ET (13:30 GMT). Later the Services purchasing managers' index (PMI) data is released at 9:45 AM ET (14:45 GMT).
Semiconductor Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) was among the top performers in pre-market trading, rising 2.86% amid news that rival Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) had a security flaw in its chips. Other movers included mobile app firm Cheetah Mobile Inc (NYSE:CMCM), which increased 11.32%, and oil shipping company Frontline Ltd (NYSE:FRO), up 6.64%.
Elsewhere luxury car maker Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) fell 2.95% after it was short on its Model 3 deliveries while social media app Snap Inc (NYSE:SNAP) decreased 2.75% and streaming device firm Roku Inc (NASDAQ:ROKU) lost 4.85%.
In Europe stocks were up. Germany’s DAX rose 128 points or 0.99% while in France the CAC 40 increased 58 points or 1.10% and in London, the FTSE 100 inched forward two points or 0.03%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 was up 36 points or 1.03% while Spain’s IBEX 35 gained 124 points or 1.23%.
In commodities, gold futures were down 0.32% to $1,314.30 a troy ounce while crude oil futures rose 0.29% to $61.81 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, fell 0.24% to 91.67.