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The
ECB cut its deposit rate deeper into negative territory and
expanded its asset-buying program to 80 billion euros a month.
"We've been conditioned that the central banks are going to
always bail us out. Whether that bailout will do anything, or
work, doesn't matter at this point," said Matthew Tuttle, chief
executive, Tuttle Tactical Management in Greenwich, Connecticut.
ECB President Mario Draghi is scheduled to hold a conference at
1330 GMT.
At 7:53 a.m. ET, S&P 500 e-minis <ESc1> were up 18.25 points, or
0.92 percent, with 235,927 contracts traded. Nasdaq 100 e-minis
were up 46 points, or 1.07 percent, on volume of 33,222
contracts. Dow e-minis were up 134 points, or 0.79
percent, with 35,630 contracts changing hands.
Wall Street closed higher on Wednesday, led by gains in the
energy sector from higher oil prices. U.S. stocks have largely
followed the direction of crude prices this year.
While economic data from Asia and Europe show faltering growth,
a recovery in the U.S. economy has been gathering momentum.
The Fed has said it is on track to raise interest rates
gradually this year, but its decision will depend largely on the
economy's capacity to absorb an increase amid the global
economic turmoil. The Fed is set to meet on March 15-16.
U.S. data on Thursday is expected to show U.S. jobless claims
slipped by 3,000 to 275,000 last week. The report is due at 8:30
a.m. ET.
Shares of Square were up 3.4 percent at $12.44 after the
mobile payments company's revenue beat quarterly estimates.
Dollar General was up 4.4 percent at $78.50 after it reported
better-than-expected same-store sales growth.
(Reporting by Abhiram Nandakumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil
D'Silva)
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