Investing.com - Here are the top five things you need to know this morning, Thursday, October 22:
1. Global markets mixed with earnings, ECB in focus
Asian equities were mixed, with China's Shanghai Composite recovering from the prior day's sudden sell-off to close up 1.5%. The rest of the region ended mixed as weakness in commodity prices and an uninspiring overnight lead from Wall Street weighed.
In Europe, equity markets swung between small gains and losses as investors remained cautious ahead of the European Central Bank's monetary policy decision due later in the day.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to modest gains at the open, as traders looked ahead to key economic data while awaiting a flurry of corporate earnings results.
2. U.S. data on deck
The U.S. is to release a weekly report on initial jobless claims at 8:30AM ET. The data is expected to show claims rose by 10,000 last week to 265,000 from 255,000 recorded the week before, which was the lowest in 42 years.
The September Chicago Fed national activity index is also scheduled for 8:30AM. At 9:00, the FHFA Home Price Index for August is due, followed by existing home sales for September, out at 10:00.
3. McDonald's, Amazon, Alphabet report earnings
Third quarter earnings season continues to gather pace. Caterpillar (N:CAT), McDonald`s (N:MCD), Eli Lilly (N:LLY), Dow Chemical (N:DOW), Under Armour (N:UA), 3M (N:MMM) and Southwest Airlines (N:LUV) are all due to report ahead of the opening bell.
And after the market closes, Google parent Alphabet Inc (O:GOOGL), Microsoft (O:MSFT), Amazon.com (O:AMZN), Pandora Media (N:P), AT&T (N:T) and Capital One Financial (N:COF) are on the earnings docket.
4. ECB in the spotlight
Investors awaited the European Central Bank's rate decision later in the session, to be followed by a closely-watched press conference.
The rate announcement is scheduled for 12:45PM London time, or 7:45AM ET, while ECB President Mario Draghi is to give a press conference on the central bank’s latest policy decision at 1:30PM London time, or 8:30AM ET.
No major policy changes are expected to be announced by Draghi, but he may stress that extra support in the future is possible, as fears linger about deflation and slowing global growth.
5. Oil recoups some losses, but gains seen as short lived
Oil futures recouped some of the prior day's sharp losses on Thursday, but gains were limited as oversupply concerns remained a factor for oil markets.
U.S. crude was last up 62 cents, or 1.37%, at $45.82 a barrel while Brent rose 62 cents, or 1.3%, to $48.47 a barrel.
Oil fell to three-week lows on Wednesday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration said that crude inventories rose by 8.0 million barrels last week, more than doubling analyst expectations for a crude-stock rise of 3.9 million barrels.