Peter Nurse   

Investing.com – U.S. stocks are seen opening marginally higher Thursday, with investors continuing to show optimism that the rapid growth of cases of the Omicron Covid variant won’t derail the country’s economic recovery.

The contract rose 105 points or 0.3% at 7AM ET (1200 GMT) and traded 12 points or 0.3% higher. It also climbed 30 point, or 0.2%, to reach the highest level since January 1, 2000 GMT.

The major indices are all on course to end the week higher, despite Monday’s sharp selloff, after the closed over 250 points, or 0.7%, higher Wednesday, the gained 1% to close within 1% of its record, and the tech-heavy rose 1.2%.

This rebound follows a three-day losing streak, the worst such decline for the broad-based S&P 500 since September, on fears the swift emergence of Omicron as the dominant coronavirus variant would result in further mobility restrictions, damaging the economic recovery.

The University of Edinburgh and Imperial College London released Wednesday reports that Omicron’s hospitalization rate was significantly lower than Delta.

AstraZeneca, (NASDAQ:), stated Thursday that it had found data from Oxford University to show three doses of the Covid-19 vaccine could provide protection against the variant.

Novavax (NASDAQ) said also that Omicron was triggered by its two-dose vaccine, days after becoming the fifth EU drug approved for use. It’s still awaiting U.S. approval.

However, there are unlikely to be any significant gains due to Omicron’s ability to cause infections to multiply in as little as 1.5 to 3 days according to the World Health Organization. Also, trading is likely to remain thin going into Christmas.

Data showed that the U.S. performed better than anticipated in December, despite the increase in Covid-19 infection rates, Wednesday data shows. This adds to optimism. 

Thursday’s data slate includes,,., and the. This data slate includes the University of Michigan indexes, and also includes and 

JD.com, NASDAQ:, is expected to make headlines in corporate sectors following its decision by Tencent Holdings (OTC) to give up its majority stake in the China based online retailer.

Oil prices gained slightly Thursday, adding to the previous session’s gains on the back of a sharp decline in stockpiles.

Late Wednesday, it was reported that crude inventories fell 4.72 million barrels last Week. This is the fourth consecutive weekly draw. This drop was larger than that reported Tuesday by the, who indicated that crude stocks had fallen by 3.67million barrels.

U.S. crude futures were 0.3% higher by 7AM ET at $73.00/barrel. They closed Wednesday over $72 for only the second time in 2 weeks. Contracts rose 0.3%, to $75.53. 

Also, the price rose 0.3% at $1,807.15/oz. However, it traded flat at 1.1325.