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Brent crude prices were up 2.5 percent, rising for the second
straight day after Iran supported plans to freeze output and a
report showed a surprise drop in U.S. inventory. [O/R]
Oil prices have heavily influenced stock markets this year as
investors run for cover amid mounting concerns of a slowdown in
global growth.
The market rout and the global slowdown have also weighed on
U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers, who are considering altering
the central bank's interest rate hike program for 2016.
Jobless claims likely increased by 6,000 to 275,000 last week, a
report due at 8:30 a.m. ET (1330 GMT) is expected to show.
Wall Street closed up on Wednesday, led by energy shares, with
the S&P 500 and the Dow logging their first three-day run of
gains for the year.
Still, the S&P 500 is down 5.7 percent this year and off 9.6
percent from its peak close in May.
Shares of Wal-Mart were down 4 percent at $63.48 premarket
after the retailer cut its full-year sales growth forecast.
IBM rose 2.8 percent to $129.65 after Morgan Stanley
upgraded the stock to "overweight", saying the company's
transformation to a cloud-focused business is underappreciated.
Nvidia was up 8.5 percent at $30 after the chipmaker's
revenue beat expectations.
Perrigo was down 4.4 percent at $138.81 after the drugmaker
reported a fourth-quarter loss.
(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan and Abhiram Nandakumar in
Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)
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