Stock futures took off last night a bit later the usual appointed hour, occurring, for the most part, at 4:30 a.m. instead of 3:00 a.m.
The S&P futures are now up 13.75 at 9:09 a.m.
As usual, the financial press is searching to make fundamental sense of this mess but failing at the task.
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Treasury prices stayed down and the dollar remained under heavy pressure against the euro on Thursday after the Labor Department said weekly jobless claims rose 37,000 to 464,000, higher than analysts expected.
Unexpected strength in the unemployment claims *should* have caused stock futures to go down, but they didn’t even wiggle at the news. Further, the notion that Treasuries “stayed down” is a vast overstatement, as the ten-year yield is only 7 ticks off for the day and remains precisely where it was before, during, and after the release of the unemployment claims.
More to the point, Treasuries are still higher than they were at the start of yesterday, despite stock futures pointing to a 100+ point open for the Dow.
The WSJ has also come out with clear indications of renewed weakness in the US housing market, which is very much counter to any possible fundamental bullish outlook that might be driving stocks (should fundamentals have any say in the matter anymore).
The housing market, whose collapse pulled the economy into recession in late 2007, is stalling again.
by cmartenson 
