Futures on Wall Street were up on Thursday extending a steep turn higher that was seen at the end of Wednesday’s session. Overseas markets saw broad gains that helped to create optimism as news on unemployment claims and a second announcement on economic growth for the third quarter were to be released during the day.
Just prior to the opening bell, the Dow futures were up over 69 points to 13,025. On Wednesday, the Dow rallied and closed 107 points up after being down by 113 points at one point early in the day. That was the first day the Dow had experienced an intraday triple digit loss swing to a gain of triple digits since October of 2011.
The S&P 500 index was up 9 points and the Nasdaq futures were higher by 20 points. However, the changes that take place in stock futures are not always an accurate way of predicting what will happen in the market once the opening bell rings.
President Obama helped to give a boost to sentiment in the U.S. late Wednesday when he said he was confident a deal would be reached to avert the fiscal cliff. He said the deal might be reached prior to Christmas. The fiscal cliff tax hikes and cuts in spending are scheduled to automatically take place on January 1, 2013.
Obama has signaled he might be more flexible regarding the tax rates for the higher earners in the U.S., which has been a sticking point with Republicans in the fiscal cliff negotiations.
Early Thursday morning the numbers for jobless benefits for the latest week will be released. The estimate among economists is for them to drop by 15,000.
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