Stock futures slightly lower
U.S. stock futures tumbled on Thursday morning as the Trump administration and Democratic leaders remain deadlocked over the next coronavirus relief package.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin reached out to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday, but the pair dismissed the “overture,” saying White House is still refusing to meet them halfway.
“An overture was made by Secretary Mnuchin to meet and he made clear that his televised comments from earlier today still stand: the White House is not budging from their position concerning the size and scope of a legislative package,” Pelosi and Schumer said in a joint statement.
However, Mnuchin disputed their claim saying it was Pelosi who was “unwilling to meet to continue negotiations unless we agreed in advance to her proposal, costing at least $2 trillion.” He added that “Democrats have no interest in negotiating.”
By 5:50 a.m. ET, the blue-chip Dow futures were down 29 points, or 0.1% to 27,837. The S&P 500 futures dropped 3.88 points, or 0.12% to 3,366.12 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures shed 13.25 points, or 0.12% to 11,112.75.
Eyes on weekly jobless claims
Today, the focus will now be on the Department of Labor’s initial jobless claims for the week ended August 8. Expectations are for the department to say the number of claims for unemployment benefits declined to 1.15 million, down from 1.186 million the prior week.
That would be mark the 21st week in which claims have topped 1 million, but would also be the lowest in almost 5 months. The Labor Department will publish the data at 8:30 a.m. ET.
Nearly 55.3 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits since the coronavirus shutdown began in mid-March.
Lyft reports 60% plunge in active riders
On the earnings front, shares in Lyft (NASDAQ: LYFT) fell in pre-market trading after the company on Wednesday posted a 60% slump in active riders during the second quarter. However, the ride-hailing giant beat both revenue and earnings forecasts thanks to cost-cutting measures.
Lyft reported an adjusted loss of $0.86 per share on revenue of $339 million for the quarter. On average, analysts polled by Refinitiv were expecting an adjusted loss of $0.99 per share on revenue of $336.8 million.
Shares of the California-based company slid 1.44% to $30.08 each in the pre-market trading session Thursday.