US STOCKS-Wall Street set for higher open as weekly jobless claims fall

Shreyashi Sanyal
·3 min read

* Videogame publishers rise after EA forecast

* Jobless claims fall, layoffs at lowest in over 21 years

* Uber falls on widening quarterly losses

* Futures up: Dow 0.18%, S&P 0.20%, Nasdaq 0.17% (Adds comments, updates prices throughout)

By Shreyashi Sanyal

Aug 5 (Reuters) - U.S. stock indexes were set to rise on Thursday after data showed fewer Americans filed for unemployment benefits, while investors looked to another busy day of corporate earnings reports.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell by 14,000 to 385,000 in the week ended July 31, while layoffs dropped to their lowest level in just more than 21 years last month as companies held on to their workers amid a labor shortage, the Labor Department's report showed.

Focus will now shift to the jobs report for the month of July on Friday.

A disappointing employment report might raise questions about the economic recovery, but it would also lead the Federal Reserve to remain accommodative, said Sean O'Hara, president at Pacer ETFs.

The benchmark S&P 500 index closed just below a record high on Wednesday. Concerns about the pace of economic growth and higher inflation have pressured the index, but stellar corporate earnings so far have put it on track to end the week slightly higher.

"I think the economy and markets have gone from feeling really confident to being a little uncertain, considering the rising risks of inflation and the Delta variant," O'Hara said.

World stocks also eased from all-time highs after Federal Reserve Vice Chair Richard Clarida, a major architect of the Fed's new policy strategy, said on Wednesday he felt the conditions for raising interest rates could be met by the end of 2022.

Earnings reports continued to pour in, with shares in Electronic Arts Inc rising 4.4% in premarket trading after it forecast current-quarter adjusted sales above estimates. Rivals Take-Two and Activision Blizzard rose about 1% each.

Uber Technologies Inc fell 4.2% after the ride-hailing and food delivery company reported widening losses.

At 8:46 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 64 points, or 0.18%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 9 points, or 0.2%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 25.5 points, or 0.17%.

Of the 340 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings so far, a record 87.6% have beat profit estimates, as per Refinitiv IBES data.

Overall, analysts expect second-quarter profit at S&P 500 companies to jump 90.2% versus a year ago.

In other earnings-related moves, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc rose 2.4% after it handily beat analysts' estimates for second-quarter results. Health insurer Cigna Corp slipped 3.9% as it doubled its estimate of the hit to full-year earnings from the pandemic.

Robinhood Markets Inc fell 6.4% after a four-day surge during which its market value doubled as retail traders piled into the online brokerage's stock.

(Reporting by Shreyashi Sanyal and Shashank Nayar in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni)

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