REUTERS/Joseba Etxaburu
A wild cow leaps over revellers into the bull ring after the second running of the bulls of the San Fermin festival in Pamplona, northern Spain, July 8, 2015.
Chinese stocks surged. China's Shanghai Composite climbed 5.8% to record its biggest one-day advance since 2009. Despite Thursday's gain, the index remains 29% off the June 12 high. China's tech-heavy ChiNext gained more than 3%.
The Bank of England kept policy on hold. The central bank held its benchmark interest rate at a record low 0.50% and its asset purchase program at 375 billion pounds. Both decisions were expected. The British pound is higher by 0.1% at 1.5370.
Japan's machinery orders it a 7-year high. The value of machinery orders climbed for a third straight month and hit their highest level since 2008. Thursday's release showed core machinery orders climbed 0.6% month-over-month, easily outpacing the 5.0% drop economists were expecting. Japan's yen is weaker by 0.7% at 121.55 per dollar.
Australia's jobs report outpaced estimates. The Australian economy unexpectedly added 7.3K jobs in June as economists were looking for a loss of 2.1K jobs. Business Insider Australia reports, "The increase in employment was driven by increases in full-time employment for both females (up 17,500) and males (up 7,000)." The unemployment rate ticked up to 6.0% from its previous reading of 5.9%, as more workers came back into the labor force. Australia's dollar is unchanged at .7435.
Alcoa posted a mixed quarter. The aluminum giant announced adjusted earnings of $0.19 per share, which missed the $0.22 that Wall Street was expecting. Revenue inched up 1% to $5.9 billion, topping the $5.81 billion that analysts were looking for. Alcoa projects "robust global aluminum demand growth" of 6.5% this year, despite the drop in prices."We continue to transform Alcoa; our portfolio reshaping combined with smart investments in growth markets is delivering strong results," CEO Klaus Kleinfeld said in a statement.
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PepsiCo beat on the top and bottom lines. The global food and beverage company announced adjusted earnings of $1.32 per share, which easily beat the $1.24 Wall Street estimate. Revenue slid 5.7% versus last year, but at $15.92 billion it still topped the $15.81 billion analysts were anticipating. PepsiCo now sees earnings growth of 8% for the year, when excluding special items and currency fluctuations, up from its previous estimate of 7% growth.
Adam Bain is the front-runner to be Twitter's next CEO. Twitter's board is said to want an insider to be the next CEO of the company, and revenue boss Adam Bain is their top choice, according to a person familiar with the matter. "It's Bain's to accept or reject," the insider said. Interim CEO Jack Dorsey is unlikely to be named permanent CEO because of his full-time job of CEO of digital payments company Square.
Honda recalled more cars because of faulty airbags. The Japanese automaker announced a recall of another 4.5 million vehicles due to exploding Takata airbags. The recall ups the total number of Honda recalls to 24.5 million. A Honda spokesman said, "It is a preventive measure and unlike other normal recalls we are not waiting for the full results of the research." According to AFP, last month, Honda revised its 2014 fiscal earnings down 14% as a result of the recalls.
Stock markets around the world are higher. Aside from the gains in China, Hong Kong's Hang Seng (+3.7%) was the top performer. In Europe, Spain's IBEX (+2.1%) leads the advance. S&P 500 futures are higher by 20.50 points at 2059.75.
US economic data is light. Initial and continuing claims are due out at 8:30 a.m. ET and natural gas inventories are scheduled to cross the wires at 10:30 a.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is up 6 basis points at 2.25%