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Near 7:22 a.m. ET, Dow futures were up 91 points, S&P 500 futures were up 10 points, and Nasdaq futures were up 29 points - all up by less than 1%.
On Wednesday, stocks staged a strong finish to what was a painful third quarter for most markets. The three major indexes lost roughly 7%, while West Texas Intermediate crude oil had its worst quarter since Q4 of 2014.
WTI futures in New York were up more than 2% at around $46 per barrel on Thursday morning.
Treasuries meanwhile were seeing strong demand. As its price rose, the yield on the benchmark 10-year note fell to as low as 2.035%, the lowest level in over two months.
The data docket is full today, starting with initial jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. Then, manufacturing PMIs for September from Markit and ISM are due at 9:45 and 10:00 a.m. respectively; regional surveys were very weak for the month, and some economists expect an ugly national reading.
All day, auto sales numbers for last month will roll in; in August, sales hit an annualized pace of 17.81 million, the highest in ten years according to Autodata.