Stock Futures Point to Smaller Gains in Day Three of Recovery

New York (Jun 30)  Stock futures pushed post-Brexit gains into day three on Thursday, though the gains were smaller than the sharp spikes seen over the past two days.

S&P 500 futures were up 0.15%, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 0.17%, and Nasdaq futures climbed 0.11%.

The S&P 500 bounced back into positive territory for 2016 on Wednesday after seeing red in a major selloff earlier in the week. The benchmark index has recovered more than half of the losses suffered Friday and Monday. Global markets had sold off on the shock of the United Kingdom's vote to exit the European Union last week.

Such a steep descent over just two sessions presented traders with opportunities to pick up heavily oversold equities, particularly given increased chances of monetary stimulus from global central banks. The protracted time for an exit from the EU -- likely at least two years -- also gave investors a reason to buy back in in the near term.

Crude oil prices pulled back from their recent rally on Thursday. The commodity enjoyed its best gains in two months on Wednesday after a bounceback from the Brexit shock and a larger-than-expected decline in domestic inventories. The rally pushed it within reach of the psychologically $50-a-barrel level.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil was down 1% to $49.38 on Thursday.

The Federal Reserve said 31 out of 33 bank capital-return plans had been approved. Among them, Morgan Stanley (MS) authorized a $3.5 billion stock buyback plan and hiked its quarterly dividend to 20 cents a share from 15 cents,  Capital One (COF) said it expects $2.5 billion in stock buybacks by the second quarter of 2017, and U.S. Bancorp (USB) announced a $2.6 billion repurchase program.

Source: TheStreet