Investing.com – Wall Street was set for a higher opening on Thursday in a year-end rally as investors look to 2018.
The S&P 500 futures rose two and a half points or 0.09% as of 6:41 AM ET (11:41 GMT) while Dow futures increased 43 points or 0.17%.(43 0.17) Meanwhile tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures was up over 16 points or 0.26%.
Investors are already looking to the new year, as markets continue to rally after the holiday season. Trading remains thin however, a trend expected to remain during the last week of the year.
Transport firm Euronav (NYSE:EURN) was among the top gainers in pre-market trading, increasing 1.64% after news that it was merging with crude oil tank company Gener8 Maritime. Chinese internet company Xunlei Ltd Adr (NASDAQ:XNET) rose 2.08% while semiconductor Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:SMI) was up 3.924% and General Electric (NYSE:GE) inched forward 0.69%.
Meanwhile bank stocks were down, with HSBC Holdings (LON:HSBA) PLC ADR (NYSE:HSBC) slipping 0.33% and Banco Santander (MC:SAN) SA ADR (NYSE:SAN) decreasing 0.15%. Online retailer Overstockcom Inc (NASDAQ:OSTK) slumped 4.79% while internet service provider Pareteum Corp (NYSE:TEUM) was down 10.00% after surging 120% on Tuesday when it added Blockchain technology to its system.
In economic news, initial jobless claims is set to come out at 8:30 AM ET (13:30 GMT) along with the goods trade balance. Crude oil inventories is released at 11:00 AM ET (16:00 GMT).
In Europe stocks were mostly down. Germany’s DAX fell 22 points or 0.17% while in France the CAC 40 decreased three and a half points or 0.07% and in London, the FTSE 100 inched forward nine points or 0.13%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 was down nine points or 0.28% while Spain’s IBEX 35 lost 46 points or 0.45%.
In commodities, gold futures rallied 0.26% to $1,294.80 a troy ounce while crude oil futures increased 0.05% to $59.07 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, fell 0.24% to 92.44.