U.S. Stocks To Open Higher As Jobless Claims Fall

New York, NY (AHN) - Stocks on Wall Street are set to rise on Thursday ahead of June retail sales and financial sector.

Several retailers are due to release reports on same-store sales, which is an important measure of performance in the industry, as market analysts expect the key gauge to increase in June.

At 9:08 a.m. EDT in New York, Standard & Poor's 500 Index futures was moving down by 29.01 points or 2.28 percent at 1,244.69 points, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures was decreasing by 236.77 points or 2.08 percent at 11,147.44 points.

At the same time, NASDAQ- 100 Index futures was dropping by 59.55 points or 2.60 percent at 2,234.89points.

In commodities, a light sweet crude barrel for August delivery remained below $137-a-barrel mark in electronic trading on Thursday.

Oil futures added by $0.62 to $136.67 a barrel in morning trading on Thursday after the report from the Energy Department indicating crude inventories to have declined more-than-expected by 5.9 million barrels for the week ended July 4.

But gasoline stocks increased by 900,000 barrels, double the expectations from the market analysts, indicating the decline in fuel consumption.

The contract surged by one cent to $136.05 a barrel on New York Mercantile Exchange on Wednesday as the U.S. markets reacted.

In the financial sector, Bank of America and Citigroup Inc., the largest U.S. bank by assets and market valuations, gained in Frankfurt as they reported that there was no need to slash dividends.

Shares of Bank of America gained by 50 cents to $22.56 and Citigroup increased by 43 cents to $16.87 on Monday

In the global markets, European equities declined on Thursday led by the retailers and banking sector over weak economic outlook.

Shares of UBS AG, which is the largest European bank hardest hit by the U.S. subprime contagion, declined by as much as 4.2 percent.

Meanwhile, shares in the Asian region finished mostly lower on Thursday, after falling for the 12 consecutive trading sessions, led by the financial firms, exporters and technology companies.

In currency trading, the yen changed hands at 107.08 yen per U.S. dollar in Asia. In late New York on late Wednesday, the Japanese currency was at 107.56 yen against the dollar.