Wall Street Set For A Mixed Start Ahead Of Key Economic Reports

New York, NY (AHN) - Stocks on Wall Street are likely to open on a mixed note on Wednesday's holiday-shortened session, ahead of some key economic reports including weekly claims data. The U.S. stock index futures also turn mix.

In economic report, the Labor Department is expected to release information on weekly initial jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. ET. The market analysts on Wall Street are expecting the claims to rise by 4,000 to 558,000 on average basis in the week ended Dec. 20.

At 6:34 a.m. EDT in New York, S&P futures were trading higher by 1.40 points or 0.16 percent at 860.00 points, NASDAQ futures was moving down by 0.50 points or 0.04 percent at 1,184.00 points.

While Dow was trading higher at 21.00 points or 0.25 percent at 8,409.00 points at the same time in New York.

Oil futures was trading below $49-a-barrel mark as a light sweet crude-futures barrel for February delivery moved up by 88 cents to $38.10 a barrel in electronic trading on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the contract continued the fall and dropped by 93 cents to close at $38.98 a barrel in overnight trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange as a report showed that the U.S. home prices slumped.

Investors will watch closely at the market reaction on the economic datas released on Wednesday ahead of Christmas holiday in the week.

The Commerce Department is expected to release its monthly report on November personal income and spending at 8:30 a.m. ET in Washington on Wednesday.

At the same time, the Census Bureau will release data on new orders of durable manufactured goods, which is likely to drop for the fourth straight month, following a drop by 6.2 percent in October.

A 10:35 a.m. ET, the Department of Energy is scheduled to report on weekly crude oil stockpiles, which is anticipated to climb by 1.5 million barrels last week that may further push down the global oil prices.

In currency trading, the yen gained slightly and changed hands at 90.42 yen against U.S. dollar in Asia on Wednesday, after it closed at 90.57 yen late Tuesday in New York.