Investing.com – U.S. Futures pointed to a flat opening bell on Thursday, after hawkish Fed meeting minutes caused investor worry about increased interest rates.
The S&P 500 futures rose six points or 0.22% to 2,704.75 as of 6:40 AM ET (11:40 GMT) while Dow futures decreased two points or 0.01% to 24,780.0. Meanwhile tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures was up four and a half points or 0.07% to 6,765.0.
Fresh concerns over interest rates surfaced on Wednesday after minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest meeting minutes underlined expectations for faster interest rate hikes.
A recent batch of stronger-than-expected U.S. inflation data has bolstered bets that the Fed could increase interest rates as many as four times this year, more than the three it currently forecasts.
Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc (NASDAQ:HMNY) was among the top performers in pre-market trading, rising 11.11% after it reported it was increasing its ownership in MoviePass. Barclays (LON:BARC) PLC ADR (NYSE:BCS) was up 4.32% while Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) inched up 0.26% and BP (LON:BP) PLC ADR (NYSE:BP) gained 0.77%.
Elsewhere British American Tobacco (LON:BATS) PLC ADR (NYSE:BTI) fell 4.38% while Tower Semiconductor Ltd (NASDAQ:TSEM )was down 4.50% and HSBC Holdings (LON:HSBA) PLC ADR (NYSE:HSBC) decreased 2.03%.
In earnings news, Hormel Foods (NYSE:HRL), Shutterstock (NYSE:SSTK), HP Inc (NYSE:HPQ), Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU) and Godaddy Inc (NYSE:GDDY) are just some of the firms expected to release their financial results.
Initial jobless claims will also be released at 8:30 AM ET (13:30 GMT).
In Europe stocks were mostly down. Germany’s DAX fell 77 points or 0.62% while in France the CAC 40 decreased 18 points or 0.35% and in London, the FTSE 100 was down 116 points or 0.51%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 lost 12 points or 0.37% while Spain’s IBEX 35 gained 17 points or 0.18%.
In commodities, gold futures were down 0.59% to $1,324.30 a troy ounce while crude oil futures fell 0.39% to $61.44 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was flat at 90.03.