Investing.com – U.S. futures pointed to a slightly higher opening bell on Thursday as earnings season continued.
The S&P 500 futures was up five points or 0.19% to 2,649.50 as of 6:49 AM ET (10:49 GMT) while Dow futures increased 40 points or 0.17% to 24,118.0. Meanwhile tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures surged 35 points or 0.54% to 6,591.00
A flurry of corporate earnings are expected on Thursday, including General Motors (NYSE:GM), Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX), American Airlines Group (NASDAQ:AAL) and many others. So far over 80% of the S&P 500 companies that have reported have posted higher than expected results.
Investors will be paying close attention to Amazon.com, which reports after the market close, after recent comments from U.S. President Donald Trump on the firms agreements with the United States Postal Service.
Meanwhile, rising bond yields remained in the back of investors minds, as inflation added to expectations of continued rate hikes from the Federal Reserve.
The yield on the benchmark United States 10-Year Treasury note was down 0.62% at 3.005, a level not seen since 2014.
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) was among the biggest gainers in pre-market trading, surging 6.70% after its first-quarter results came in higher than expected. The social media site reported a 63% rise in profits, as the business remains untouched by a scandal over user data.
Meanwhile Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) was up 9.47% while PayPal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PYPL) rose 4.46% and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) increased 1.41%.
Elsewhere Nokia Corp ADR (NYSE:NOK) dipped 5.73% while AT&T (NYSE:T) fell 4.09%.
In economic news, jobless claims and durable goods come out at 8:30 AM ET (12:30 GMT).
In Europe stocks were up. Germany’s DAX rose 14 points or 0.12% while in France the CAC 40 increased 22 points or 0.41% and in London, the FTSE 100 was up 11 points or 0.16%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 gained 11 points or 0.33% while Spain’s IBEX 35 surged 41 points or 0.42%.
In commodities, gold futures inched up 0.08% to $1,323.90 a troy ounce while crude oil futures increased 0.37% to $68.30 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, fell 0.08% to 90.96.