Futures point to a negative open
U.S. stocks are expected to open lower on Thursday, after scoring another stellar rally in the previous session as traders continued to bet on the reopening of the U.S. economy from COVID-19 lockdowns.
By 5:35 a.m. ET, the blue-chip Dow futures were down 129 points or 0.49% to 26,098.5. The S&P 500 futures contract dropped 15.63 points, or 0.50% while the Nasdaq 100 futures contract lost 23.63 points, or 0.24% to 9,661.12.
On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 527.24 points, or 2.05% to end the session at 26,269.89. The S&P 500 gained 42.05 points, or 1.4%, to close at 3,112.87 while the Nasdaq Composite Index added 74.54 points, or 0.8%, to end at 9,682.91.
Weekly jobless claims in focus
Today, the key focus will be on the U.S. weekly initial jobless due to be released by the Labor Department at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists polled by Bloomberg expect the report to show another 1.8 million Americans filed for unemployment insurance benefits in the week ending May 30.
More than 40 million jobless claims have been filed by Americans over the past 10 weeks as the COVID-19 pandemic rippled through the economy. The report comes ahead of the eagerly-awaited May jobs report, which is set to be published tomorrow morning.
Broadcom, Slack, DocuSign earnings on tap
On the earnings front, traders are awaiting Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO)’s Q2 earnings results after the closing bell. Analysts expect the chipmaker to post earnings of $5.14 per share on revenue of $5.69 billion.
Slack (NYSE: WORK) and DocuSign (NASDAQ: DOCU) will also report after the market close. Slack is forecast to post quarterly loss of $0.06 a share on revenue of $187.65 million, while DocuSign is seen reporting earnings of $0.10 per share on revenue of $280.93 million.
Other notable earnings to watch today include Gap (NYSE: GPS), RH (NYSE: RH), G-III Apparel (NASDAQ: GIII), and Ciena (NYSE: CIEN).
ZoomInfo prices IPO at $21 a share, for a $19.5 billion valuation
Meanwhile, ZoomInfo on Wednesday priced its shares at $21 each for its initial public offering, in a sign of healthy demand by investors. The price valued the business database company, which offers sales and marketing intelligence software and services, at $12.7 billion.
By selling at $21 a share, ZoomInfo raised $935 million from investors in the IPO. The shares will begin trading today on the Nasdaq Stock market under the ticker symbol ZI.
