Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s speech might be the highlight on Thursday. The Weekly Jobless Claims and the Pending Home Sales report might also get attention.
Early trends on the U.S. Futures Index suggest that Wall Street might open lower.
Asian shares closed mostly lower, while European shares are trading down.
As of 7.55 am ET, the Dow futures were declining 5.00 points, the S&P 500 futures were down 5.25 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures were plummeting 44.00 points.
The U.S. major averages eventually ended Wednesday narrowly mixed. While the Dow slipped 68.61 points or 0.2 percent to a new three-month closing low of 33,550.27, the S&P 500 crept up 0.98 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 4,274.51 and the Nasdaq rose 29.24 points or 0.2 percent to 13,092.85.
On the economic front, the Commerce Department’s GDP for the second quarter will be published at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is for growth of 2.3 percent, while it was up 2.1 percent in the prior quarter.
The Jobless Claims for the week is scheduled at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is for 211K, while it was up 201K in the previous week.
The Corporate Profits for the second quarter will be published at 8.30 am ET. In the prior quarter, the after-tax year-over-year profits were down 9.4 percent.
The Pending Home Sales Index for August will be revealed at 10.00 am ET. In the prior month, the Index was up 0.9 percent.
The Energy Information Administration or EIA’s Natural Gas Report for the week will be issued at 10.30 am ET. In the prior week, the gas stock was up 64 bcf.
Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Index for September will be issued at 11.00 am ET. In August, the level was 0.
The seven-year Treasury Note auction will be held at 1.00 pm ET.
The Fed Balance Sheet is expected at 4.30 pm ET. In the prior week, the Level was up $8.024 trillion.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will present the opening remarks and participate in moderated discussion before the hybrid “Conversation with the Chair: A Teacher Town Hall Meeting” at 4.00 pm ET.
Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee will give policy speech onsite before the Peterson Institute for International Economics at 9.00 am ET.
Fed Governor Lisa Cook will present the closing remarks before hybrid Minorities in Banking Forum hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas at 1.00 pm ET.
Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin will speak on the economy and monetary policy before the Money Marketeers of New York University at 7.00 pm ET.
Asian stocks ended mostly lower on Thursday. Chinese shares ended slightly higher, with the Shanghai Composite index edging up 0.10 percent to 3,110.48 ahead of a long holiday beginning on Friday.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 1.36 percent to 17,373.03.
Japanese shares tumbled. The Nikkei average slumped 1.54 percent to 31,872.52 while the broader Topix index closed 1.43 percent lower at 2,345.51.
Australian markets ended marginally lower after a choppy session.
European shares are trading mostly lower. CAC 40 of France is gaining 13.07 points or 0.18 percent. DAX of Germany is declining 2.83 points or 0.02 percent. FTSE 100 of England is sliding 34.01 points or 0.45 percent. Swiss Market Index is down 5.61 points or 0.05 percent.
Euro Stoxx 50 which provides a Blue-chip representation of supersector leaders in the Eurozone, is down 0.00024 percent.
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