At around 02:30 a.m. ET, Dow futures rose 121 points, indicating a positive open of more than 106 points. Futures on the S&P and Nasdaq were also higher.
Wall Street ended Wednesday little changed despite earlier falls following a dramatic move in bond yields. The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield briefly dipped below 1.6% to hit a 2016 low, but was back up near1.7412% by Thursday morning.
Tumbling yields can signal global growth concerns from investors and fuel sharp pullbacks in equity markets. An escalation in trade tensions between China and the United States has accentuated these fears in recent days.
· Asian shares were trying to piece together a rally on Thursday as Beijing reported surprisingly solid trade numbers while also limiting the fall in its yuan, offering a brief respite from fears of a global currency war.
Markets reacted by paring a little of their recent hefty losses. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan bounced 0.9%, though it was still down more than 7% over the past two weeks.
“Financial markets are raising risks of recession,” said JPMorgan economist Joseph Lupton.
“Equities continue to slide and volatility has spiked, but the alarm bell is loudest in rates markets, where the yield curve inverted the most since just before the start of the financial crisis.”
· Japan’s Nikkei eked out small gains on Thursday on bargain-hunting after the past week’s heavy selling, but sentiment remained frail over uncertain prospects for a resolution to the U.S.-China trade conflict.
The benchmark Nikkei share average rose 0.37% to 20,593.35 after four straight days of losses, while the broader Topix retreated 0.08% to 1,498.66.
· Shares in China ended six straight sessions of losses on Thursday as the yuan staged a small recovery, which calmed fears in global markets of a full-blown Sino-U.S. currency war.
At the close, the Shanghai Composite index was up 0.9% at 2,794.55, while the blue-chip CSI300 index rose 1.3%.
Haunted by the trade war escalation, the two indexes lost more than 6% in the past six trading days and fitted in and out of negative territory for much of the past month. On Thursday, they recorded the largest daily gains since July 1.
· European stocks traded higher Thursday morning as investors swing back toward risk assets and digest a range of corporate earnings.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 jumped 0.7% in early trade, with technology stocks climbing 1.4% as all sectors and major bourses except the FTSE 100 traded in positive territory.
Reference: CNBC, Reuters
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