Dow futures fall 180 pts; Retail earnings, jobless claims and Fed speakers eyed By

By Peter Nurse

-- U.S. stocks are Gold exchangeseen opening lower Thursday, with investors set to digest more corporate earnings, weekly jobless claims, and a plethora of Federal Reserve speakers.

At 07:00 ET (12:00 GMT), the contract was down 180 points or 0.5%, traded 20 points or 0.5% lower, and dropped 50 points or 0.4%.

The main stock indices closed lower Wednesday, after a dismal outlook from big-box retailer (NYSE:) raised concerns ahead of the crucial holiday season while chipmaker Micron Technology (NASDAQ:) warned about the market outlook for 2023.

The blue-chip closed 40 points or 0.1% lower, the broad-based dropped 0.8%, and the tech-heavy fell 1.5%.

The retail sector will remain in focus Thursday, with the likes of Macy's (NYSE:) and Kohl's Corp (NYSE:) due before the bell and Gap (NYSE:) as the traditionally biggest shopping season officially kicks off next week.

Results have been mixed so far this week, with (NYSE:), (NYSE:), and (NYSE:) beating expectations, managing to produce decent results despite the soaring , while Target was forced to discount merchandise to clear out excess inventory.

Wednesday's number was also stronger than expected, suggesting consumers continue to be resilient.

Attention will now turn to the labor market, with weekly expected later in the session. The is trying to tame inflation without tipping the U.S. economy into recession or causing mass redundancies.

The latest reports on October and are also due, as well as the and Fed manufacturing surveys.

There are also a number of Fed speakers scheduled for Thursday, including , , , and .

Oil prices fell Thursday as geopolitical concerns eased after NATO officials cleared Russia from blame for the missile attack on Poland, easing fears of the war between Russian and Ukraine broadening.

Data released Wednesday from the showed that crude stocks in the United States, the world's biggest oil consumer, fell by 5.4 million barrels last week, largely matching the previous day's release from the industry body, the .

However, inventories of and distillate fuels both rose by more than expected, leaving an unclear picture.

By 07:00 ET, futures traded 1.6% lower at $84.22 a barrel, while the contract fell 1.2% to $91.75.

Additionally, fell 0.4% to $1,768.45/oz, while traded 0.4% lower at 1.0349.

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