US Stock Futures Point To Positive Open Despite Latest Chinese Economic Data; Data On Retail Sales, Jobs Should Influence Trading Session

After a couple of lacklustre days on the market, stocks look set to open higher despite yet another set of disappointing economic data from China that markets elsewhere too seem to have taken in their stride.

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.19 percent and futures on the S&P 500 were up 0.23 percent while those on the Nasdaq were up 0.32 percent. On Wednesday, the Dow slipped 0.07 percent and the S&P 500 inched up 0.03 percent while the Nasdaq rose 0.37 percent.

Dollar General Corp. (NYSE:DG) and Genesco Inc. (NYSE:GCO) are among those scheduled to announce quarterly earnings before markets open. On the data front, jobless claims for the week ended March 8 and retail sales numbers for February are both due at 8:30 a.m. EDT.

In Europe, markets were mixed with the Stoxx Europe 600 index up 0.08 percent and the FTSE 100 was down 0.07 percent. Germany’s DAX-30 was slightly up 0.17 percent while France's CAC-40 edged up 0.15 percent.

In Asia too, markets were mixed with Japan’s Nikkei-225 slipping 0.1 percent while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.53 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 0.67 percent while the Shanghai Composite rose 1.07 percent. South Korea’s Kospi was up 0.1 percent while India’s BSE Sensex fell 0.37 percent.