Wall Street was looking a positive start to trading on Thursday, but with the closely-watched initial jobless claims data expected before the open the market could go in either direction.
At 6:35 a.m. in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 32 points, or 0.32%, to 10079, the S&P 500 index futures rose 2.6 points to 1057.20 and the Nasdaq 100 futures were up 3.75 points to 1793.50.
The recent upward trend in the number of people filing for unemployment insurance has been one of the more telling signs of possible pause in the economic recovery. Last week, jobless claims rose above the 500,000-claim mark to a new 2010 high.
Economists interview by Thomson Reuters expect jobless claims fell by 15,000 for the week of Aug. 21 to 485,000 claims. Continuing claims, which are people on unemployment insurance for more than a week, is expected to rise to 4.515 million people.
Stocks found some positive direction from commodities in early trading. Oil was up 1.2% to $73.70 a barrel in electronic trading while gold rose 0.2% to $1,243.80 a troy ounce. Copper futures rallied, rising 1.6% overnight.
On Wednesday, the Dow rose 19.61 points, or 0.20%, to 10060.06, the Standard & Poor's 500 added 3.46 points, or 0.33%, to 1060.06 and the Nasdaq Composite added 17.78 points, or 0.84%, to 2141.54. The FOX 50 gained 2.40 points, or 0.31%, to 765.82.
