(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors) U.S. stock futures were sharply higher in early trading Thursday as oil prices continued to rise and a voting member of the Fed made dovish comments.
Futures on the three major US indexes were up between 0.9% and 1% as of 8:15am ET.
On Wednesday stocks in the U.S. surged halting a five session losing streak for the S&P 500 as oil prices rebounded. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 213 points.
Late yesterday Chicago Fed President Charles Evans a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee this year said the US might not hit the central bank's targeted inflation rate until 2018 and therefore doesn't advise a rate hike until 2016. He spoke at an event sponsored by the University of Chicago.
U.S. crude in New York which gained 1.5% on Wednesday continued to rise last up 31 cents at $48.97 a barrel in early trading. Gold futures were down $3 at $1208 an ounce after snapping a three session rally yesterday.
On the economic calendar today U.S. jobless claims for the week that ended January 2 fell by 4000 to 294000 below the key 300000 mark for the 16th time in 17 weeks. Economists were expecting claims to drop to 290000 from 298000 the previous week.
The data come ahead of the all-important monthly jobs report tomorrow.
Investors can also expect consumer credit figures for November at 3:00pm ET this afternoon with consensus forecasts calling for a $15 billion increase.
Meanwhile European stocks were also up substantially today with shares in France leading the region after weaker than expected German factory orders data further boosted hopes for additional stimulus by the European Central Bank. Japan's Nikkei closed up 1.67% on Thursday the biggest gain in three weeks as oil prices continued to firm up.
In corporate news Family Dollar () shares fell premarket after its quarterly profit dropped due to costs tied to a strategy change. The results came in below analysts' expectations.
(NYSE:STZ) rose premarket after raising its outlook as sales and profit climbed in its most recent quarter to top forecasts driven by growth in its beer business.
(NASDAQ:COST) shares were up 0.5% after it reported a 3% increase in same store sales for December above expectations. U.S. sales alone were 5% higher.
PVH Corp () said it is planning to close its Izod retail division by the end of fiscal 2015 though it expects the move will not impact its Izod wholesale business.
McDonald's () in Japan reported more incidents in which customers complained about their food this time saying that they found pieces of metal and plastic a day after a human tooth was discovered in french fries there.
's () share of the U.S. search market excluding mobile devices has dropped to 75.3% last month from 77.5% in November while Yahoo's share jumped to 10% from 8% according to analytics firm StatCounter. This is due to a deal in November where Yahoo replaced as the default search engine on Firefox browsers in the U.S. The company could be facing even larger losses as the Wall Street Journal reports () is considering dropping as the default search engine on its Safari browser.
Biogen Idec () rose over 2% premarket after it reported positive phase 2 results from its treatment for acute optic neuritis a disease which often leads to significant loss of vision or blindness.
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