Stock futures were higher early Thursday morning as investors' mood lifted following the $46 billion takeover bid for brewer InBev made for Anheuser-Busch and ahead of what's expected to be a positive retail sales report.U.S. stocks once again dropped sharply Wednesday as oil prices shot up by over $5 a barrel, and the troubles in the financials were in focus again. The Dow industrials declined 205 points, or 1.68%, the Nasdaq Composite lost 54 points, or 2.24%, and the S&P 500 dropped 22 points, or 1.69%.
At 8:30 a.m. EDT, May retail sales are due out and economists estimate sales grew by 0.5% during the last month, 0.7% excluding autos.
At the same time, weekly jobless claims numbers will be released. While recently the jobless claims data trended better than anticipated, Friday's employment figures too the market by surprise as unemployment jumped from 5% to 5.5%.
Also reported at that time are May import and export prices.
Then, at 10:00 a.m., April business inventories are scheduled for release.
Meanwhile, Asian markets followed the declines in the U.S. The dollar rose against the euro and yen in expectations of a rebound in retail before, and oil prices eased as a result of the dollar gains.
What's making headlines this morning is of course the $46 billion unsolicited all-cash bid brewer InBev put in for Anheuser-Busch (NYSE: BUD). This amounts to $65 a share, but the bid is unsolicited and may find resistance both from within from the Busch family, and without due to political reasons during an election year. BUD shares are trading 7.5% higher in premarket action.
Citigroup (NYSE: C) is closing its hedge fund Old Lane Partners co-founded by the bank's chief executive, Vikram Pandit, and will buy what is left of its assets, according to The Wall Street Journal.
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