Toplines Before US Market Open on Thursday

(Julr 22) Stock futures advanced on Thursday, with investors looking to earnings and data for impetus to extend a 2-day rally that wiped out losses sustained during the worst trading day of 2021.

At 7:54 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 47 points, or 0.14%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 6.5 points, or 0.15% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis rose 28.75 points, or 0.19%. 

The turnaround from the Monday selloff shows “corporations have been very resilient through all this,” David Mazza, Direxion head of product, said on Bloomberg Television. “Earnings estimates are quite remarkable, probably some of the best on record. Even through all this, we have central-bank liquidity remaining very abundant, economic growth being robust.”

Energy and mega-cap tech stocks gained ahead of a new batch of earnings reports, the latest initial claims data and the first ECB meeting to incorporate the bank's new strategic review. Energy stocks Chevron Corp, Exxon Mobil, Schlumberger NV, Occidental Petroleum and Marathon Petroleum Corp climbed between 0.1% and 1%, tracking crude prices.

Some other notable pre-market movers:

• Didi Global (DIDI) drops 3% in premarket trading after people familiar with the matter said Chinese regulators are considering serious, perhaps unprecedented, penalties for for the ride-hailing giant after its controversial initial public offering last month.
• Texas Instruments (TXN) drops 4.8% after third-quarter sales and profit forecasts left analysts disappointed, with Barclays saying the “flat outlook leaves little to live for this late in the cycle.”
• AT&T (T) added 0.9% as the telecom operator beat analysts’ estimates for monthly phone bill paying subscriber additions in the second quarter, fueled by more Americans converting to 5G phones.
• Dow (DOW) rose 1.3% after its second-quarter profit doubled from the first, as prices for its chemicals used in plastics and packaging rose on the back of strong consumer and industrial demand as well as lower inventories.
• Chembio Diagnostics (CEMI) gains 9.9% and NeuroMetrix (NURO) surges 33% amid discussions on message boards at Reddit and StockTwits.

Elsewhere, the Labor Department’s report, due at 8:30 a.m. ET, is expected to show the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell to 350K (from 360K) for the week ended July 17, amid rampant worker shortages. Investors have been closely following the health of the jobs market on which monetary policy hinges, especially after a series of higher inflation reading recently sparked fears about a sooner-than expected paring of policy support as the economy reopens.

Bitcoin briefly rose above $32,000 after getting a boost from Elon Musk, who said his space exploration company SpaceX owns the digital token.

In commodities oil hung on to most of Wednesday's sharp price rise, its biggest one-day gain in three months. Brent crude futures were last 0.4% softer at $71.94 a barrel, but had gained more than 4% on Wednesday. Gold was steady at $1,801 an ounce and cryptocurrencies were firm after bouncing from lows when Tesla boss Elon Musk said the carmaker would likely restart accepting bitcoin payments after due diligence on its energy use.