Weekly jobless claims eyed
U.S. stocks look set to open higher on Thursday, after the Dow dropped 218.45 points, or 0.9%, to end the previous session at 23,664.64 while the S&P 500 lost 20.02 points, or 0.7%, to close at 2,848.42.
At 5:30 a.m. ET, futures tied to the Dow were up 275 points, or 1.17% to 23,788. S&P 500 futures rose 37 points, or 1.31% to 2,870.05 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 126.25 points, or 1.41% to 9,078.25.
In commodities, U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 44 cents, or 1.83% to $24.43 a barrel. Global Brent crude futures were at $30.22 a barrel, up 50 cents, or 1.68%.
The big story today is the weekly jobless claims report due to be published by the U.S. Labor Department at 8:30 a.m. ET.
Economists expect the report to show that over 3 million Americans filed initial claims for state unemployment benefits in the week ended May 2 because of coronavirus-related layoffs and furloughs. That would bring the total number of people seeking unemployment benefits over the past six or seven weeks to about 33 million.
Yesterday’s ADP employment report showed U.S. private-sector employers shed a staggering 20.2 million jobs last month.
Bank of England warns of tough times ahead
The Bank of England (BoE) warned in forecasts published early Thursday that the COVID-19 pandemic will push the UK economy towards its worst downturn on record.
Policymakers see the economy sinking by as much 30% in the three months to June, before bouncing back relatively rapidly in summer and into the autumn as the country gets back to something like normal.
This means gross domestic product will drop by 14% this year compared to last year, before recovering by 15% next year as the UK government eases social distancing measures. Policymakers also expect unemployment to hit 9% before slowly dropping back to its current level in 2022.
The bank said it was working to ease the effects as much as possible and left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at a record low of 0.1%.
Lyft shares ride higher on upbeat earnings report
Lyft (NASDAQ: LYFT) shares are surging after the company reported better-than-expected Q1 financial results late Wednesday.
The ride-hailing firm said revenue grew 23% to $955.7 million in the quarter, despite the coronavirus pandemic. Analysts had called for revenues of $898 million. Net loss dropped to $398 million from the $1.14 billion reported a year ago.
Lyft CEO Logan Green said during a conference call with analysts that they anticipate that “continued social distancing, altered consumer behavior and expected corporate cost cutting will be significant headwinds” for the company even as shelter-in-place orders and travel restrictions are modified or lifted.
As of this writing, the stock was up 13.51% to $29.65 a share in Thursday’s premarket trading session.
Peloton posts 66% revenue growth thanks to lockdown
Peloton (NASDAQ: PTON) reported fiscal third-quarter revenues of $524.6 million after the market closed on Wednesday, up 66% from a year ago and above Wall Street’s expectations of $485.400 million.
The fitness giant said it experienced a spike demand as the coronavirus crisis forced more people to buy its bikes and treadmills and subscribe to its live classes.
However, net loss increased to $55.6 million, or $0.2 per share in the quarter from a loss of $38.6 million, or $1.76 a share in the prior-year quarter. Peloton attributed the surge in net loss to settlement expenses and nonrecurring litigation.
The company raised its full-year revenue forecast to a range of $1.72 billion to $1.74 billion from its previous outlook of $1.53 billion to $1.55 billion.
Peloton shares rose 16.49% to $44.30 each in premarket trade Thursday.
