By Joe Young

Investors will be closely watching the news conference following the European Central Bank meeting, looking for clues about a future rate cut, and hoping bank President Mario Draghi will answer questions about the ECB's bond buying program, now called the Outright Monetary Transactions.

In other news, Germany factory orders were down 1.9% vs. the 0.5% expected increase.

Euro benefited from positive Spanish and French bond auctions.

S&P 500 futures gained 0.2%.

The EUR/USD was at 1.3021, a 0.35% decline.

Spanish 10-year government bond yields rose to 4.917%.

Italian 10-year government bond yields fell 0.54% to 4.64%.

Gold saw its first decline yesterday in three days to $1,579.25 an ounce, a year to date loss of 5.6%.

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Overseas markets
Asian shares fell 0.4% while the Nikkei hit a 4.5 year high. Shares had two strong days of gains after meetings of central banks, but the Nikkei was excused after drawing support from the U.S. House of Representatives that agreed to continue funding government programs until September 30.

Commodities
WTI crude futures and Brent crude futures were down 0.5%, continuing the decline over the last month to a total of 5.95% drop. Copper futures were up 0.007% to 3.50. Gold was and silver futures are up on electronic trades 0.39%.

Currencies
The Canadian dollar traded down 0.14%, the British pound was down 0.10%, the Japanese yen was up 0.20% and the Australian dollar was down 0.39%..

Earnings
Notable companies reporting earnings Thursday include:

• Pandora (P) is expected to report quarterly earnings per share of -$0.5 vs. -$0.3 a year ago.
• Fly Leasing (FLY) is expected to report quarterly earnings per share of $0.78 vs. $0.80 a year ago.
• Cedar Realty Trust (CDR) is expected to report quarterly earnings per share of $0.09 vs. $0.12 a year ago.
• Workday (WDAY) is expected to report quarterly earnings per share of -$0.21.

Economics
On the economic calendar Thursday, the international trade report will give insight to the U.S. on the global economy. The Bank of England also render a decision from its committee on monetary policy.

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