Wall Street headed higher as tech investors lick their wounds

Wall Street headed higher as tech investors lick their wounds

LONDON- Wall Street was headed higher on Thursday, pulling European shares back into the black as investors in Big Tech licked their wounds after Nasdaq's slide into correction territory. However, fears that the U.S. Federal Reserve will be more aggressive in raising interest rates this year than the market has priced in continued to cap investor confidence. Crude oil prices eased off their 2014 peaks, and the dollar dipped as the week's rally in U.S. Treasury yields paused. Nasdaq futures were up 0.7%, suggesting Wednesday's selloff in tech stocks due to rising yields and Federal Reserve tightening would pause for now. The tech-laden Nasdaq is down more than 10% from its Nov.19 closing record high. S&P 500 and Dow stock futures 1YMcv1 EScv1 were also firmer. U.S. data due on Thursday include the Philadelphia Fed survey for January and U.S. initial jobless claims. In Europe, the STOXX index of 600 European companies was up 0.2% at 481 points, below its life-time high of 495.46 points hit in the first week of trading this year. The MSCI all country stock indexwas in positive territory with a gain of 0.2% at 729 points, but is still down about 3.8% so far this