Wall Street Poised To Open Marginally Down

Add as your preferred news source on Google Add Now Report on weekly jobless claims might be on spotlight on Wednesday. Activities are likely to be subdued ahead of the Christmas Day holiday on Thursday.Initial signs from the U.S. Futures Index suggest that Wall Street might open marginally lower. Asian shares finished mostly up, while European shares are trading broadly higher. As of 7.40 am ET, the Dow futures were down 35.00 points, the S&P 500 futures were declining 1.25 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures were up 0.50 points. The U.S. major averages finished mostly up. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq ended the day just off their highs of the session. The S&P 500 climbed 31.30 points or 0.5 percent to 6,909.79 and the Nasdaq advanced 133.02 points or 0.6 percent to 23,561.84, while the Dow rose 79.73 points or 0.2 percent to 48,442.41.On the economic front, the Jobless Claims for the week will be released at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is 225K, while it was up 224K in the prior week. Seven-year Treasury Note auction will be held at 11.30 am ET. The Baker Hughes Rig Count for the week will be issued at 1.00 pm ET. In the prior week, the North America rig count was 727, while the U.S. rig count was 542. Asian stocks closed mixed on Wednesday. Chines stocks closed modestly higher. The benchmark Shanghai Composite gained 20.97 points or 0.53%, settling at 3,940.95.Hong Kong's Hang Sensex settled with a gain of 44.79 points or 0.17% at 25,818.94.Most of the markets in the region closed early today.The Japanese market's Nikkei 225 ended down by 54.87 points or 0.11% at 50,358.00.In the Australian market, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index settled down by 33 points or 0.38% at 8,762.70. The broader All Ordinaries index closed lower by 27.20 points or 0.3% at 9,069.00.European shares are trading broadly higher. Among the major indexes in the region, the CAC 40 Index of France is adding 8.59 points or 0.11 percent. The German DAX is progressing 56.09 points or 0.23 percent, the U.K. FTSE 100 Index is down 18.54 points or 0.19 percent.The Swiss Market Index is gaining 79.14 points or 0.60 percent.The Euro Stoxx 50 Index, which is a compilation of 50 blue chip stocks across the euro area, is up 5.06 points or 0.088 percent. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.comBusiness News