Stock futures are little changed on Thursday as investors grew more optimistic about a December interest rate cut.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials gained 52 points, or 0.1%, to 48,006
Futures for the S&P 500 improved 65 points, or 0.1%, to 6,868.50.
Futures for the NASDAQ added 8.25 points to 25,665.75.
Salesforce stock gained in the premarket after the company offered a stronger-than-expected revenue forecast. Five Below rose more than 4% after the discount retailer’s earnings flew past Wall Street’s estimates.
The latest jobs figures from ADP released earlier Wednesday helped lift the 30-stock Dow Industrial Average higher on the day, along with the other two major U.S. stock indexes.
The Dow rose more than 400 points, or 0.9%. The S&P 500 and tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite ended 0.3% and 0.2% higher, respectively.
Investors took the ADP data — which reflected a surprising decline in private payrolls for the month of November — as a further signal that the Federal Reserve could be more inclined to cut its key interest rate at its upcoming Dec. 10 meeting. Markets are pricing in an 87% chance of a cut next Wednesday, which is significantly higher than rate cut bets just a couple weeks ago.
Markets will be watching more jobs data Thursday when the Labor Department at 8:30 a.m. ET reports initial jobless claims numbers for the week ending Nov. 29.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones expect a slight uptick in filings to 220,000. Also, job placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas will release announced layoff figures for November.
Overseas, the Nikkei 225 in Japan skyrocketed 2.3% while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index captured 0.7%.
Oil prices climbed 31 cents to $59.26
Gold prices ditched $9.40 to $4,223.10.
