Wall Street Poised To Open Lower

(RTTNews) - Geopolitical conditions in the Middle East and the continued supply concerns of oil and gas are influencing the investor sentiments on Thursday.

Oil prices traded higher in the Asian trading session. Brent crude prices climbed more than 2 percent to $93.78 a barrel.

Gold prices fell, after rising sharply in the previous session. Spot gold fell 0.8 percent to $4,486.71 an ounce.

Early trends from the U.S. Futures Index suggest that Wall Street might open lower. As of 7.50 am ET, the Dow futures were down 247.00 points, the S&P 500 futures were sliding 20.00 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures were declining 127.50 points.

The U.S. major averages finished higher on Wednesday. The Dow climbed 119.65 points or 0.2 percent to 53,463.05, the Nasdaq rose 41.38 points or 0.2 percent to 26,331.09 and the S&P 500 edged up 16.22 points or 0.2 percent to 7,707.98.

On the economic front, the Jobless Claims for the week will be released at 8.30 am ET. The consensus for initial claims is 211K, while it was up 209K in the prior week.

The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index for August is scheduled at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is 25.0, while it was up 41.4 in the prior month.

The Leading Indicators for July will be published at 10.00 am ET. The consensus is for an increase of 0.1 percent, while it was down 0.2 percent in June.

The Energy Information Administration or EIA's Natural Gas Report for the week will be revealed at 10.30 am ET. In the prior week, the gas stock was up 36 bcf.

The Fed Balance Sheet for the week will be issued at 4.30 pm ET. In the prior week, the Level was $6.76 trillion.

Two-year Floating Rate Note or FRN announcement will be at 11.00 am ET.

Two-year, 5-year, 7-year Treasury Note auction will be held at 11.00 am ET.

Thirty-year Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities or TIPS auction will be held at 1.00 pm ET.

Fed President Alberto Musalem will participate in live interview on CNBC's Squawk on the Street at 11.10 am ET.

Asian stocks rose on Thursday. China's Shanghai Composite index rose 0.24 percent to 3,903.72. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index jumped 0.80 percent to 25,698.49.

Japanese markets rose sharply. The broader Topix index ended up 1.18 percent at 4,059.73.

Australian markets ended modestly higher. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 edged up 0.33 percent to 9,083.80.