Wall Street Might Open Broadly Up

(RTTNews) - Early signs from the U.S. Futures Index suggest that Wall Street might open mostly up on Thursday. Geopolitical developments in the Middle East are closely observed by investors.

Oil prices held steady, gold prices traded higher. Spot gold traded 0.6 percent higher at $4,272.01 an ounce, after having surged above $4,300 an ounce

As of 7.45 am ET, the Dow futures were up 76.00 points, the S&P 500 futures were adding 8.00 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures were declining 157.00 points.

The U.S. major finished Wednesday mostly down. The Dow remained positive, climbing 263.24 points or 0.5 percent to 54,349.12, the S&P 500 dipped 12.97 points or 0.2 percent at 7,723.55 and the Nasdaq slid 221.55 points or 0.8 percent to 26,363.44.

On the economic front, the Jobless Claims for the week will be issued at 8.30 am ET. The initial claims for the week was 201k, while it was up 197k in the prior week.

The Productivity and Costs for the second quarter is scheduled at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is 0.7 percent, while it was up 0.3 percent in the prior quarter.

The Energy Information Administration or EIA's Natural Gas Report for the week will be released at 10.30 am ET. In the prior week, the gas stock was up 28 bcf.

Fed Balance Sheet for the week will be published at 4.30 pm ET. In the prior week, the Level was $6.738 trillion.

Asian stocks ended mixed on Thursday. China's Shanghai Composite index rose 0.57 percent to 3,900.35. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 1.49 percent to 25,530.28.

Japanese markets ended lower. The Nikkei average dropped 0.93 percent to 65,683.26 while the broader Topix index settled 0.24 percent higher at 4,055.85.

Australian markets advanced. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.47 percent to 9,271.60 while the broader All Ordinaries index closed half a percent higher at 9,452.