Wall Street is set to open slightly higher on Thursday morning, as indices attempt to bounce back after falling for four consecutive sessions.

Half an hour before the opening, futures contracts on the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 all posted gains of around 0.2%, suggesting a modest advance at the opening.

Fears that the Fed might postpone rate cuts have weighed heavily on the trend in recent days, particularly since Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's cautious stance on the subject on Tuesday.

While a few cheap buybacks could bolster trading, the still-favorable trend in safe-haven assets such as gold, which is trading at record levels, shows that this recovery is likely to remain fragile.

In parallel with the slight rebound in equities, US government bond yields eased slightly on Thursday, suggesting a lesser degree of concern.

The yield on 10-year US Treasury bonds edged up to around 4.61%, but remained well below the 4.70% mark that had been approached on Tuesday.

Signalling a lull in the markets, the CBOE volatility index continued to fall, dropping 1.6% to 17.9.

Economic data published this morning show that activity remains solid in the United States, which seems to rule out any immediate rate cuts.

The Philadelphia Fed index rose 12 points to 15.5 in April, its third consecutive positive figure and its highest level since April 2022.

As for jobless claims, they were unchanged last week, but this stability is not enough to call into question an underlying trend that remains tense on the labor market.

Investors are now awaiting the release of new home sales and the Conference Board's leading indicators, which will be published shortly after the opening.

On the energy front, the price of a barrel of US light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) continues to fall, shedding 0.2% to $82.5, a far cry from the almost six-month highs reached at the beginning of April.

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