By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Wall Street looks set for a higher open
Wednesday, after the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a shiny
new record high, and with weekly updates on labor and oil due in
the abbreviated Christmas Eve session.
Futures for the S&P 500 (SPH5) were up 1.8 points at
2,080.70, and those for the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJH5)
gained 15 points, or 0.1%, at 17,991. Nasdaq 100 futures (NDH5)
rose 5 points, or 0.1%, to 4,283.
Investors will wrap up the trading day early, with both the New
York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Market closing at 1 p.m.
Eastern Time. The markets will remain closed Thursday for Christmas
Day, and will reopen Friday with normal hours.
But before everyone rushes home for the holiday, the Labor
Department will release its jobless-claims report at 8:30 a.m.
Eastern Time. Economists polled by MarketWatch expect claims for
state unemployment-insurance benefits will tick up to 290,000, from
289,000 in the prior week.
Recent employment data has indicated strengthening in the labor
market, which, in turn, should support the consumer-driven U.S.
economy. Third-quarter U.S. gross domestic product growth was
revised up to a 5% rate, powered by consumer spending, the Commerce
Department said Tuesday.
Following the GDP reading, which marked the highest pace of
growth in 11 years, U.S. stocks finished higher Tuesday. The Dow
Jones Industrial Average (DJI) closed above 18,000 for the first
time, in the fifth fastest 1,000-point rise in the Dow's
history.
The Dow at 18,000 before the end of 2014 is "extremely
encouraging", considering the "January Effect" which is the theory
that "markets will rally even more when we get in to 2015, as
investors pile back in to the equity market," said Neal Gilbert,
senior market analyst, at Forex.com, in a Tuesday note.
The Dow reaching 20,000 by February may be a stretch, but not
entirely out of reach, said Gilbert.
"As bold as I'd like to get, the daily trend-line resistance
indicates that 20,000 won't be achieved until late [third quarter
of 2015], so we may have a little time to wait before we start
breaking out our Jules Verne-themed balloons," he wrote.
Oil: At 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time, the Energy Information
Administration is expected to report a drawdown of 2.4 million
barrels from U.S. crude-oil inventories for the week ended Dec. 19,
according to a Platts survey. If the EIA reports a decline in oil
stocks, that would be in contrast to late Tuesday data from the
American Petroleum Institute, which showed crude inventories rose
5.4 million barrels last week.
Oil prices, which have been volatile in recent weeks on
oversupply concerns, moved lower on Wednesday. West Texas
Intermediate crude futures for February delivery (CLG5) fell more
than 1%, below $57 a barrel. Brent crude futures also dropped more
than 1%, to below $61 a barrel.
Stocks to watch: Surgical-implants maker Stryker Corp. (SYK) is
preparing a bid for U.K.'s medical-devices maker Smith & Nephew
PLC , according to a Bloomberg report.
Shares of Cal-Maine Foods Inc. (CALM) could see active trading
after the company reported disappointing results for its fiscal
second quarter on Tuesday.
Other markets: In Asia, Japan's Nikkei Average rose 1.2%, while
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index ended up a more modest 0.1%. European
stock markets were mixed ahead of the Christmas break. Gold futures
(GCG5) were down slightly, less than $1 an ounce.
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