U.S. stock futures pointed to a dull opening on Thursday with technology stocks holding on to their modest gains as traders focus on progress in tax bill negotiations and General Electric's job-cut plan.
- GE (N:GE) shares rose 0.6 percent to $17.76 in premarket trading after the struggling industrial conglomerate said it was axing 12,000 jobs at its global power business.
- Shares of tech giants Microsoft Corp (O:MSFT), Amazon.com Inc (O:AMZN), Facebook Inc (O:FB), Apple Inc (O:AAPL) and Alphabet Inc (O:GOOGL) were up about 0.3 percent to 0.6 percent.
- Other early movers include Broadcom (O:AVGO), which gained 5 percent after reporting upbeat profit and boosting its dividend by 72 percent, days after the chipmaker took its $103 billion bid for Qualcomm (O:QCOM) hostile.
- Lululemon Athletica (O:LULU) rose about 8 percent after the Canadian yoga and leisure apparel maker reported a higher-than-expected profit and gave an upbeat holiday-quarter forecast.
- U.S. Senate Republicans on Wednesday agreed to talks with the House of Representatives on the tax bill on Wednesday, amid early signs that lawmakers could agree on a final bill ahead of a self-imposed Dec. 22 deadline.
- However, a gridlock between President Donald Trump and Congress over the passage of fresh spending legislation before Friday has raised fears of partial shut down of the federal government.
- Oil prices rose more than half a percent after dipping 2 percent on Wednesday as a fall in U.S. crude inventories was countered by soaring output and a rise in fuel stocks. [O/R]
- Data is expected to show weekly initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose to 240,000 from 238,000 in the week before. The report is due 8:30 a.m. ET (1330 GMT).
Futures snapshot at 6:51 a.m. ET:
- Dow e-minis (1YMc1) were down 13 points, or 0.05 percent, with 19,224 contracts changing hands.
- S&P 500 e-minis (ESc1) were up 1.5 points, or 0.06 percent, with 122,705 contracts traded.
- Nasdaq 100 e-minis (NQc1) were up 15.75 points, or 0.25 percent, on volume of 29,337 contracts.
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