Investing.com – Wall Street was set to push forward to new record highs on Thursday as investors waited for key corporate earnings results.
The S&P 500 futures rose over five points or 0.20% to 2,846.75 as of 6:48 AM ET (11:48 GMT) while Dow futures increased 43 points or 0.16% to 26,313.0. Meanwhile tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures were up 31 points or 0.45% to 6,962.25.
Earnings season has been strong so far. A number of firms are expected to release their financial results on Thursday, including Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT), Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (NYSE:FCAU) American Airlines Group (NASDAQ:AAL), Southwest Airlines Company (NYSE:LUV), JetBlue Airways Corporation (NASDAQ:JBLU), Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX).
Caterpillar rose 0.81% before the morning bell, while semiconductor Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU) increased 2.65% and STMicroelectronics NV ADR (NYSE:STM) jumped 1.46%. Meanwhile banking institution Barclays (LON:BARC) PLC ADR (NYSE:BCS) was up 0.84% while Credit Suisse (SIX:CSGN) Group (NYSE:CS) gained 0.31%.
Elsewhere ING Group NV ADR (NYSE:ING) dipped 0.20% while Legg Mason Inc (NYSE:LM) slumped 4.99%.
In economic news, jobless claims are expected at 8:30 AM ET (13:30 GMT), with new home sales out at 10:00 AM ET (15:00 GMT).
Investors will also be looking overseas, with the European Central Bank expected to keep interest rates at their current record low levels when it holds its first policy meeting of the year at 7:45AM ET (12:45GMT).
In Europe stocks were up. Germany’s DAX rose eight points or 0.06% while in France the CAC 40 increased 26 points or 0.48% and in London, the FTSE 100 was up five points or 0.07%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 gained eight points or 0.22% while Spain’s IBEX 35 jumped 43 points or 0.41%.
In commodities, gold futures rose 0.22% to $1,3459.30 a troy ounce while crude oil futures increased 0.72% to $66.08 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, fell 0.07% to 88.96.