Stock market news live updates: Stock futures gain ahead of jobless claims

U.S. stock futures gained in pre-market trading Thursday ahead of fresh data out of Washington on the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits.

Contracts on the S&P 500 rose 0.5%. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 150 points, or 0.4%, and Nasdaq futures advanced 0.5%.

Meanwhile, oil prices retreated slightly from a vicious upward ascent but held above $122, and the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield remained at the psychologically important 3% level.

A report indicating the highly-anticipated initial public offering of Jack Ma’s Ant Group may be on the horizon appeared to buoy sentiment in the morning trade. , China may allow the Alibaba () affiliate to proceed with the listing in a sign that regulators may be dialing on a tech crackdown that halted the IPO two years ago. Shares of Alibaba rose as much as 7% pre-market.

Elsewhere in futures markets, shares of Tesla () were up more than 3% before the open following an upgrade from UBS to Buy in a report that also said the electric vehicle giant is “best positioned to become one of the top-3 global car makers by 2030.”

Moves in early trading Thursday come after a down day on Wall Street that saw stocks resume losses after back-to-back sessions of gains. On Wednesday, the S&P 500 shed 1%, while the Dow and Nasdaq fell roughly 0.8% and 0.7%, respectively.

Investors continue to look for clues on how the economy is faring amid tighter financial conditions and how aggressive the Federal Reserve rate hiking cycle may get before a potential pause.

The latest weekly jobless claims report due out before market open follows strong May employment data last Friday that likely signaled to policymakers current labor market conditions can withstand further monetary tightening. Central bank officials have taken cues from the labor market on the tempo of rate increases as it fights inflation, with policy aimed to cool labor demand just enough not to push the jobless rate too high.

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“Looking ahead, the Fed is most likely to feel reassured that it has struck the right balance lately,” DWS U.S. Economist Christian Scherrmann said. “That, in turn, means it is likely to stick to its aggressive monetary normalization path,” he added, also indicating that such a roust labor market gives “plenty of headroom” to raise interest rates.

Investors are bracing for the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ – a focal point on the economic data from this week. May’s reading is projected to show inflation slightly abated in May , with consensus economists looking for headline inflation to rise at a 8.2% annual rate for May, and by 5.9% excluding food and energy prices.

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7:17 a.m. ET: Stock futures advance as Wall Street attempts to come back from losses

Here were the main moves in futures trading ahead of market open Thursday:

• S&P 500 futures (ES=F): +20.50 (+0.50%) to 4,134.50

• Dow futures (YM=F): +146.00 (+0.44%) to 33,035.00

• Nasdaq futures (NQ=F): +67.25 (+0.53%) to 12,683.00

• Crude (CL=F): +$0.01 (+0.01%) to $122.12

• Gold (GC=F): -$6.50 (-0.35%) to $1,850.00 per ounce

• 10-year Treasury (^TNX): +5 bps to yield 3.0290%

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Alexandra Semenova is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @alexandraandnyc

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