Investing.com – Wall Street futures pointed to a flat open as U.S. stocks appeared set to take a break at record highs and looked ahead to more earnings, U.S. data and a monetary policy announcement across the Atlantic by the European Central Bank (ECB).
The blue-chip Dow futures edged forward 12 points, or 0.05%, at 6:48AM ET (10:48GMT), the S&P 500 futures advanced 1 point, or 0.04%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures inched up 1 point, or 0.02%.
The second quarter earnings season has begun to pick up with 60 S&P firms having already reported as of Wednesday. 77% of those have beaten consensus profit estimates, according to The Earnings Scout.
However, these experts pointed out that earnings growth has so far been 8.3%, down from the 12.7% registered for the same companies in the first quarter.
“First quarter EPS (earnings-per-share) growth of 15% will be the high water mark for growth in 2017,” they warned.
“We are already measuring deceleration among the first 60 reporting for the second quarter,” they explained.
The earnings deluge will continue in force on Thursday with no less than 25 S&P firms reporting.
Releasing results before the opening bell investors will watch Blackstone (NYSE:BX), Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE:BK), Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT), Travelers (NYSE:TRV), Sherwin-Williams (NYSE:SHW) and Union Pacific (NYSE:UNP).
Though the focus will likely be on key companies reporting after the market close such asMicrosoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) and Visa (NYSE:V).
Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) and American Express (NYSE:AXP) earnings will also be in focus, after both posted misses late Wednesday, sending their shares lower in pre-market trade.
On the economic front, weekly jobless claims and the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing survey are both due at 8:30AM ET (12:30GMT).
The dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.19% at 94.82 by 6:48AM ET (10:48GMT), moving away from an 11-month low of 94.27 touched earlier this week.
Forex traders, particularly, were waiting for the outcome of the ECB's meeting as they hoped for fresh clues on when it will start to shift away from its ultra-easy policy, with the euro trading flat against the dollar.
The ECB's interest rate decision is due at 7:45AM ET (11:45GMT), with no changes expected.
Most of the focus will be on president Mario Draghi's press conference 45 minutes after the announcement, as investors look for more clues on when and how the ECB could scale back its massive quantitative easing program.
Also in focus earlier on the monetary policy front, the Bank of Japan remained on hold with respect to interest rates and asset buying as a two-day meeting concluded.
The central bank did push back the timing for achieving its 2% inflation target, reinforcing expectations it will lag well behind major global central banks in dialing back its massive stimulus program.
The dollar rose more than 0.3% against the yen to about 112.32 at 6:51AM ET (10:51GMT), off the prior session's more than three-week low of 111.54.
Meanwhile, oil prices hovered near fresh six-week highs on Thursday, supported by the larger than expected U.S. inventory draw in the previous session.
U.S. crude futures gained 0.08% to $47.36 by 6:52AM ET (10:52GMT), while Brent oil traded up 0.14% to $49.77.