S&P, Nasdaq, Dow futures rise with focus on global rates

Wall Street’s major market averages ticked higher at the open on Thursday morning following the midweek holiday.

Early on and the Nasdaq Composite (COMP:IND) was +0.3%, the S&P 500 (SP500) was +0.2%, while the Dow (DJI) was +0.2%.

Traders are watching global central banks, with the Swiss National Bank cutting for the second time this year. The Bank of England will also announce its decision before Wall Street opens. The BoE is widely expected to hold, but the August meeting is more of a toss-up, so the Monetary Policy Committee vote split will be closely watched. Last time around, two of the nine MPC members voted to cut.

“The BoE relishes dissent and discussion to help form higher quality decisions (the Federal Reserve might like to take note), making policy outcomes less predictable,” UBS’ Paul Donovan said. “With consumer price inflation down nine percentage points from the recent highs, the case for lowering real interest rates is strong — but the BoE might want a couple more data points before acting.”

U.S. rates were higher. The 10-year Treasury yield (US10Y) rose 6 basis points to 4.28% and the 2-year yield (US2Y) rose 3 basis points to 4.74%.

In U.S. economic data, jobless claims fell by 5K after hitting nine-month high last week. In total, jobless claims fell to 238K.

Figures on May housing starts and permits slumped more than expected. Housing starts dropped 5.5% M/M in May to 1.277M, while building permits declined 3.8% M/M to 1.386M.

At the same time, the Philly Fed Manufacturing Index shrunk more than expected in June. The index came in at -1.3 versus the +4.8 expected level.