Wall Street Points To Lower Losses On Central Banks' Rescue

New York, NY (AHN) - Stocks on Wall Street may open higher on Thursday on reports that the Federal Reserve will join in with other central banks to infuse more liquidity into money markets.

On early Thursday, the Feb said The Central Banks from major economies are going to inject an additional $180 billion worth of dollar liquidity into the short-term credit markets.

The measure is part of a coordinated effort by the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank (ECB), the Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan, and the Swiss National Bank.

The Federal Open Market Committee has authorized the step to increase capacity of funds available to improve the liquidity conditions in global financial markets.

"This increased capacity will be available to provide dollar funding for both term and overnight liquidity operations by the other central banks," the Fed said in a statement issued early Thursday.

At 8:13 a.m. EDT in New York, S&P futures were trading up by 8.50 points or 0.73 percent at 1,171.40 points, NASDAQ futures was moving up by 14.00 points or 0.85 percent at 1,661.00 points, while Dow was trading higher at 46.00 points or 0.43 percent at 10,710.00 points.

Oil futures continued its upward movement and moved near $100 on Thursday and recently, a light, sweet barrel for October delivery by $2.30 to $99.46 a barrel.

On Wednesday, the contract had surged by $6.01 to $97.16 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange over rising financial concerns.

In addition, shares of Washington Mutual surged by 14 percent to $2.29 in Frankfurt trading, after its previous closing at $2.32 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

The market analysts and reports have been speculating that Washington Mutual Inc., the country's largest U.S. savings and loan, has received bids from different buyers.

Reports indicated that the financial firms including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. may bid for acquiring stakes in Washington Mutual.

In economic reports, the Labor Department is scheduled to release information on initial jobless claims for the week ended Sept. 13 at 8:30 a.m. EDT.

The Conference Board is scheduled to release information on the leading economic indicators for August at 10 a.m. ET.

In global markets, shares in European markets turned green on Thursday's early morning trading, led by financial firms on reports that the central banks are planning to pump in more liquidity in to the money market to ease the strain on credit condition.

Asian markets rebounded to close mostly higher on Thursday after erasing early day losses following reports that central banks of the major economies decided to provide more liquidity in to money markets.

In currency trading, the yen changed hands at 104.78 yen per U.S. dollar in Asia, after it closed at 104.73 yen late Friday in New York.