Wall Street To Continue Positive Trend At Open

(RTTNews) - Early signs from the U.S. Futures Index suggest that Wall Street might open positive on Thursday.

In the Asian trading hours, gold jumped more than 2 percent to touch a new peak above $5,550 an ounce. Oil extended a recent rally, while the dollar weakened.

As of 7.30 am ET, the Dow futures were up 61.00 points, the S&P 500 futures were adding 14.50 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures were progressing 36.50 points.

The U.S. major averages finished broadly up on Wednesday. The S&P 500 edged down 0.57 points to 6,978.03, the Dow crept up 12.19 points to 49,015.60 and the Nasdaq rose 40.35 points or 0.2 percent to 23,857.45.

On the economic front, the International Trade in Goods and Services for November will be issued at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is for a deficit of $45.0 billion, while the deficit in October was $29.4 billion.

The Labor Department's Jobless Claims for the week will be released at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is for 205K, while it was up 200K in the prior week.

The Productivity and Costs for the third quarter will be published at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is for an increase of 4.9 percent, while it was up 4.9 percent in the prior quarter.

The Factory Orders for November is scheduled at 10.00 am ET. The consensus is for growth of 1.3 percent, whiel it was down 1.3 percent in the prior month.

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 down 120 bcf.

Seven-year Treasury Note auction will be held at 1.00 pm ET.

The Fed Balance Sheet for the week is expected at 4.30 pm ET. In the prior week, the Level was at $6.585 trillion.

Asian stocks ended mixed on Thursday. China's Shanghai Composite index edged up by 0.16 percent to 4,157.98. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 0.51 percent to 27,968.09.

Japanese markets closed on a flat note. The Nikkei average finished marginally higher at 53.375.60. The broader Topix index closed up 0.28 percent at 3,545.30.

Australian markets ended marginally lower. Across the Tasman, New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX-50 index slipped 0.48 percent to 13,348.61.