Here are 5 things to know before the stock market opens on Thursday, March 31st

Here are the most important news, trends and analyzes that investors need to start their trading day:

U.S. stock futures changed slightly on Thursday as bond yields and oil prices fell. OPEC + ‘s major international oil producers were meeting amid high crude and pressure to increase output to reduce petrol prices amid reports that the United States was considering cutting off supplies from its strategic oil reserves. On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 broke a four-session winning streak and the Nasdaq fell for the first time in three days. With one day left in March, all three stock benchmarks were strongly higher for the month. However, with the end of the wild first quarter, Wall Street was tracking for the first three months of 2022.

• Dow stocks rose on Apple’s premarket, ending its 11-session 18% winning streak in the morning. The Walgreens Boots Alliance, a Dow component, fell 1% in Thursday’s premarket, after reporting better-than-expected earnings and revenue. The results were helped by the increased demand for covid booster shots and testing due to the proliferation of Omicron variants in the winter months.

The West Texas Intermediate crude, the benchmark U.S. oil, fell 6% to about $ 101 a barrel on Thursday as traders waited for OPEC + ‘s production plan. President Joe Biden is due to comment Thursday, with media reports saying he will detail plans to release 1 million barrels of oil per day from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve for several months.

• The move will be aimed at lowering oil and gas prices, which have pushed up inflation in the global economy due to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and subsequent supply concerns. Russia is a major oil exporter – and unprecedented sanctions for its unpleasant war have disrupted the flow.

Treasury yields declined on Thursday, but the original spreads – 5-year and 30-year as well as 2-year and 10-year – were tight. Earlier this week the 5-year Treasury yield was reversed and moved above the 30-year yield, a market distortion that often occurred before the economic downturn. Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields fell to 2.3%, almost three-year highs.

• A day before the March employment report, the government is ready to announce its weekly data on initial unemployment claims at 8:30 p.m. Economists were looking for a slight increase to 195,000 in the first filing for unemployment benefits in the week ending March 26. The previous week’s reading of 187,000 was a 527-year low.
• The Federal Reserve’s favorite inflation measure, the core personal spending price index, is expected to rise 5.5% year-on-year in February, slightly higher than the biggest increase in the previous month since April 1983. Markets expect the central bank to be more aggressive with interest rate hikes after raising borrowing costs earlier this month for the first time in more than three years.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his nation’s tough defense against Russian aggression was at a “turning point” and he again appealed to the United States for more help. The ceasefire talks, which took place this week and raised hopes, are set to resume via video on Friday. Russia seems to be declining in its indications of progress and has backtracked on its promise to delay some operations.

The newly released U.S. intelligence indicates that Russian President Vladimir Putin thinks he has been misled by military leaders who did not provide him with basic details about the stupid attack on Ukraine because they feared he would be angered, top officials in the Biden administration said Wednesday. Kate Beddingfield, the White House communications director, told reporters that the failure of the communications “has led to continued tensions between Putin and his military leadership.”

According to the Associated Press, citing people familiar with the matter, the Biden administration is expected to end the asylum border on May 23 at the U.S.-Mexico border, which was set up to prevent the spread of covid. The decision, which is not yet final, would stop the use of public health powers to relieve the United States of its obligation to provide shelter to people fleeing persecution under American law and international treaties.

Biden warns that the United States will not have adequate covid vaccine doses this fall to ensure free and easy access for all Americans if Congress fails to pass the $ 22.5 billion in additional funding requested by the administration. Biden further said Wednesday that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended adequate rounds of booster this week, and that the United States has sufficient supplies to ensure that eligible people have access to the fourth shot.

– CNBC reporters Melissa Repco, Elliott Smith, Sam Meredith, Christina Wilkie And Spencer Kimball As well as The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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