US index futures point to a positive opening

FXStreet (Mumbai) - After the lackluster activity witnessed in the previous session, the US equity markets are likely to open on appositive note, despite of a weaker than expected weekly jobs data and monthly retail sales data released today.

At the time of writing, the DJIA futures traded 0.24% higher at 17,874.50 levels, while the S&P futures traded 0.36% higher at 2073.15 levels. Meanwhile, NASDAQ were up 0.56% at 4320.70. Russell futures were up 0.72% at 1208.90 levels respectively. The VIX futures traded 2.17% lower at 18.08 levels.

The positive action seen in the futures may be due to an impending ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, which is set to go into effect from Feb. 15th. Early strength may also be seen on account of positive earnings news from Cisco.

However, gains are likely to be capped on account of a weaker-than-expected economic data. The official data in the US released today showed the initial jobless claims in the previous week rose by 304K in the previous week, beating the expected rise of 287K. Meanwhile, the advance retail sales fell 0.8% in January, surpassing the expected fall of 0.4%.

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