U.S. stock futures traded slightly lower early Thursday on the heels of a market slide a day earlier as a recent rally lost steam.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials backtracked 21 points, or 0.1%, to 29,370.
Futures for the S&P 500 nicked back 1.25 points at 3,563.75.
Futures for the NASDAQ Composite lost 20 points, or 0.2%, to 11,877.
Futures were off their lows, however, after the release of preliminary data showed University of Oxford and AstraZeneca’s vaccine candidate triggered a similar immune response among all adults.
The slide for stocks accompanied mixed news about the coronavirus crisis. On Wednesday morning, Pfizer announced that a final analysis showed that its vaccine candidate was 95% effective against Covid-19. However, New York City announced during the afternoon that it was closing schools due to a rising positivity rate.
Thursday morning will bring another look at how the labour market recovery is faring amid rising cases of Covid-19. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones expect the reading for initial jobless claims to come in at 710,000, roughly flat compared with the prior week.
Overseas, in Japan, the Nikkei 225 index faded 0.4% Thursday, while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index lost 0.7%.
Oil prices sank 24 cents to $41.58 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices $12.20 to $1,861.70 U.S.