Upbeat Jobs Data May Lead To Early Strength On Wall Street - U.S. Commentary

(RTTNews) - Stocks are likely to move to the upside in early trading on Wednesday, extending the upward trend seen over the past few sessions. The major index futures are currently pointing to a modestly higher open for the markets, with the Dow futures up by 23 points.

Early buying interest may be generated by a report from the Labor Department showing an unexpected drop in initial jobless claims in the week ended December 20th.

The report said initial jobless claims fell to 280,000, a decrease of 9,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 289,000.

The modest decrease came as a surprise to economists, who had expected jobless claims to inch up to 290,000.

Stocks may also benefit from the recent upward momentum on Wall Street, which helped the Dow close above 18,000 for the first time on Tuesday.

The S&P 500 also ended the previous session at a record closing high, while the Nasdaq is back near its best levels since 2000.

Nonetheless, overall trading activity may be somewhat subdued amid the holiday-shortened Christmas Eve session.

Among individual stocks, shares of Cal-Maine Foods (CALM) may be in focus after the egg producer reported weaker than expected second quarter earnings.

The company also warned about the potential impact of a law related to egg production standards and sales in California.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH) said an engine room fire that took one of its ships out of service will reduce its fourth quarter and first quarter earnings by $0.05 per share.

Meanwhile, Novo Nordisk (NVO) announced that the FDA has approved its New Drug Application for Saxenda, the first once-daily human glucagon-like peptide-1 analogue for the treatment of obesity. Stocks turned in a relatively lackluster performance during trading on Tuesday following the release of a mixed batch of U.S. economic data.

The major averages ended the day on opposite sides of the unchanged line. While the Nasdaq fell 16.00 points or 0.3 percent to 4,765.42, the Dow climbed 64.73 points or 0.4 percent to 18,024.17 and the S&P 500 edged up 3.63 points or 0.2 percent to 2,082.17.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher during trading on Wednesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index jumped by 1.2 percent, while Australia's All Ordinaries Index edged up by 0.2 percent.

Meanwhile, the European markets have turned mixed, with several markets closed for the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index inched up by 0.2 percent, the French CAC 40 Index is down by 0.4 percent.

In commodities trading, crude oil futures are sliding $1.16 to $55.96 after jumping $1.86 to $57.12 a barrel on Tuesday. Gold futures are slipping $2.40 to $1,175.50 an ounce. In the previous session, gold fell $1.80 to $1,178 an ounce.

On the currency front, the U.S dollar is currently trading at 120.48 yen compared to the 120.69 yen it fetched at the close of New York trading on Tuesday. Against the euro, the dollar is valued at $1.2207 versus yesterday's $1.2172.