Corporate earnings and economic data could give U.S. stock markets reason to stabilize Thursday after recent sharp losses.
U.S. stock futures were edging slightly higher ahead of the opening bell, though global markets were predominantly in the red.
Investors are watching international developments closely, after a reduced flow of cheap money from the Federal Reserve accelerated a sell-off in some emerging market currencies. The turmoil has prompted a flight from riskier assets, including stocks.
Investors will get their first reading of U.S. fourth-quarter GDP from the Commerce Department at 8:30 a.m. ET Thursday. Also at 8:30, the government will release its weekly report on initial jobless claims.
A flood of quarterly results are due before the opening bell from firms including UPS and Exxon Mobil. Amazon and Google are set to report in the afternoon.
U.S. stocks fell Wednesday after the Federal Reserve said it was cutting another $10 billion per month from its economic stimulus program. All the main U.S. indexes declined by more than 1%.
So far in 2014, the Dow Jones industrial average has fallen by 5% while the S&P 500 index has dropped by 4%. The bulk of the losses were sustained over the past few trading days.
But there have been some bright spots. Facebook shares surged more than 12% after hours Wednesday following strong quarterly sales and earnings results.
Google shares also rose in after-hours trading after it announced the sale of its Motorola Mobility smartphone business to China’s Lenovo for $2.9 billion.
European markets were in negative territory in morning trading, and Asian markets also took a knock.
Japan’s Nikkei dropped 2.5%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.5% and Australia ASX All Ordinaries lost 0.8%. The Shanghai Composite, which often diverges from other Asian markets, advanced 0.6%.
