The weekly jobless claims and existing home sales, as well as geopolitical developments will be the highlight on Thursday. Investors are awaiting signals from Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech scheduled on Friday at the Fed's annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

As of 8.15 am ET, the Dow futures were down 196.00 points, the S&P 500 futures were declining 25.25 points and the Nasdaq 100 futures were sliding 98.25 points.

The U.S. major averages finished lower on Wednesday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq ended the day down 142.10 points or 0.7 percent at 21,172.86 after plunging by as much as 1.9 percent in early trading. The S&P 500 also dipped 15.59 points or 0.2 percent to 6,395.78, while the Dow inched up 16.04 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 44,938.31.

On the economic front, the Jobless Claims for the week will be issued at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is 224K, while the initial calims were up 224K in the prior week.

The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index for August will be released at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is for an increase of 8.0, while it was up 15.9 in the prior month.

The PMI Composite Flash for August is scheduled at 9.45 am ET. In the prior month, the index was 54.6. The consensus for manufacturing index is 49.7, while it was up 49.5 in the prior month.

The Existing Home Sales for July will be revealed at 10.00 am ET. The consensus is 3.90 million, while it was up 3.93 million in June.

The Leading Indicators for July is scheduled at 10.00 am ET. The consensus is for a decline fo 0.1 percent, while it was down 0.3 percent in the previous month.


The Energy Information Administration or EIA's Natural Gas Report for the week will be released at 10.30 am ET. In the prior week, the gas stock was up 56 bcf.

Thirty-year Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities or TIPS will be issued at 1.00 pm ET.

The Fed Balance Sheet for the week is expected at 4.30 pm ET. In the prior week, the Level was up $6.644 trillion.

Asian stocks ended mixed on Thursday. China's Shanghai Composite index edged up by 0.13 percent to 3,771.10. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index dipped 0.24 percent to 25,104.61.

Japanese markets ended lower. The Nikkei average dropped 0.65 percent to 42,610.17 while the broader Topix index settled 0.52 percent lower at 3,082.95.

Australian markets recorded higher. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.13 percent to 9,019.10.