Stocks Poised to Open Higher
NEW YORK (
) -- Stock futures pointed to a stronger open Thursday even as initial weekly jobless claims rose as investors focused on the
Federal Reserve's
plan to bolster the recovery by injecting $600 billion into the U.S. economy.
Futures for the
Dow Jones Industrial Average
were up by 72 points, or 83 points above fair value at 11,249. Futures for the
S&P 500
were 9 points higher, or 12 points above fair value at 1206 and
Nasdaq
futures were up by 16 points, or 25 points above fair value.
Stocks ended Wednesday’s session with strong gains on the Fed’s announcement that will buy $600 billion of longer-term Treasury securities by the end of second quarter of 2011 to lower long-term interest rates and help support the economy.
Global markets also gained on the news. On Thursday, Hong Kong's Hang Seng jumped 1.6% and Japan's Nikkei soared by 2.2%. The FTSE in London increased 1.6% and the DAX in Frankfurt also added 1.6%. />Also on Thursday, the
Bank of England
voted against expanding its bond-purchase program and left rates unchanged. The
European Central Bank
also opted to keep its main refinancing rate unchanged at 1%, as expected.
Overseas, both the
Bank of England
and the
European Central Bank
are meeting Thursday morning to discuss monetary policies.
Initial weekly jobless claims gained 20,000 to 457,000 in the week ended Oct. 30, exceeding the level of 445,000 that economists had expected, according to Briefing.com. The increase comes a day ahead of Friday’s October employment report from the Labor Department.
|
Kraft Foods
(KFT)
,
Sotheby’s
(BID) - Get Report
and
Starbucks
(SBUX) - Get Report
are among some of the companies reporting after the closing bell. According to Briefing.com, analysts are anticipating per-share earnings of 46 cents, 42 cents and 32 cents, respectively.
Shares of
Qualcomm
(QCOM) - Get Report
were up 8.3% to $49.48 in premarket trading after the company reported a quarterly profit of 68 cents a share late Wednesday, beating estimates of 59 cents.
Whole Foods’
(WFMI)
stock was ahead by 8.3% to $44.46 in early trading after the grocery chain posted a quarterly gain of 33 cents a share late Wednesday, exceeding estimates for 28 cents. The company also increased its full-year sales forecast.
Shares of
BHP Billiton
(BHP) - Get Report
traded 4.2% higher to $89.67 a share in early trading after the Canadian government rejected its $40 billion bid to acquire
Potash
(POT)
but gave the company 30 days to make an appeal.
Time Warner Cable
(TWC)
saw shares advance 6.4% to $63.47 in early trading after the company handily beat earnings forecasts for 89 cents a share with a profit of $1 a share. Revenue of $4.73 billion squeaked past estimates for sales of $4.72 billion and the company announced a $4 billion share repurchase program.
Sirius XM
(SIRI) - Get Report
topped analysts’ estimates by a penny and said sales rose 15% from a year ago to $722.5 million, outpacing the revenue target of $718.7 million projected by Wall Street. The company also increased its year-end outlook to 2010 adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $600 million, from $575 million, previously.
In commodity markets, the December crude oil contract added $1.41, to trade at $86.10 a barrel. Meanwhile, the December gold contract gained $35.20 to $1,372.80 an ounce.
Meanwhile, the dollar traded lower against a basket of currencies with the dollar index down by 0.6% and the benchmark 10-year Treasury note strengthened 11/32, diluting the yield to 2.540%.
--Written by Melinda Peer in New York
.
Disclosure: TheStreet's editorial policy prohibits staff editors and reporters from holding positions in any individual stocks.
