Stock futures trade as rally continues



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US equity futures are trading slightly higher ahead of Thursday’s session.

The main forward indices suggest a gain of 0.2% at the start of the Wall Street session.

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Traders will dissect a handful of economic reports that can influence trading.

The Labor Department will report on new claims for unemployment benefits for the past week. Watch for a drop of 17,000 from the previous week to 830,000. Continuing claims, which track the total number of unemployed people receiving benefits, are expected to drop to 4.7 million, the lowest since March 21 .

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At the same time, fourth quarter productivity and labor costs will be released. Economists polled by Refinitiv predict that worker productivity declined at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.8% in the last quarter, after jumping 4.6% in the third quarter. Unit labor costs are expected to rise 4%, after declining 6.6% in the September quarter.

The Commerce Department will post factory orders for December.

It will also be a very busy day for profits, with healthcare being the focus in the morning when Cigna, AmerisourceBergen, Merck, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Quest Diagnostics report.

Consumer-focused names like Clorox, Hershey Yum Brands, Tapestry and Ralph Lauren will also report.

After the close, investor attention will turn to News Corp., Ford Motor, Activision Blizzard and Peloton, among others.

In Europe, London’s FTSE rose 0.1%, Germany’s DAX by 0.5% and France’s CAC by 0.5%,

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 1.1%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.7%, and China’s Shanghai Composite lost 0.4%.

Wall Street ended with modest gains, with the S&P 500 advancing 3.86 points, or 0.1%, to 3,830.17, after fluctuating between a gain of 0.6% and a loss of 0.3% . The small gain extended the benchmark’s winning streak to a third day.

Teleprinter security Latest Change % Change
I: DJI MEDIUM DOW JONES 30723.6 +36.12 + 0.12%
SP500 S&P 500 3830.17 +3.86 + 0.10%
I: COMP NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX 13610.543204 -2.23 -0.02%

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 36.12 points, or 0.1%, to 30,723.60. The highly technological Nasdaq slipped 2.23 points, or less than 0.1%, to 13,610.54. The index had briefly been above its all-time high last week.

Investors continued to watch stocks of companies like GameStop and AMC Entertainment, which posted modest gains on Wednesday. GameStop grew 2.7% and AMC grew 14.7%. The stocks have been taken into a speculative frenzy by online forum traders looking to inflict damage on Wall Street hedge funds who have bet stocks will fall.

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Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has called for a meeting with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Reserve and others to discuss recent market volatility and to determine “whether recent activity is consistent with protecting investors and investors. fair and efficient markets, ”White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told me.

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In energy trading, benchmark US crude gained 46 cents to $ 56.15 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It picked up 93 cents at $ 55.69 a barrel on Wednesday. Brent crude, the international standard, added 38 cents to $ 58.84 a barrel.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

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