U.S. stocks appear set for a cautious opening on Thursday as investors await a series of speeches from Federal Reserve officials, including Chair Jerome Powell, Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman, and a discussion between Fed Governor Michael Barr and Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari.

On Wednesday, the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee's (FOMC) September meeting were released, highlighting concerns among Fed officials about labor market weakness and the need for further rate cuts.

While Dow Jones futures edged up by 0.01% at the time of writing, the S & P 500 futures were down by 0.02%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100's futures fell 0.05%. Futures of the Russell 2000 index were down by 0.2%.

Meanwhile, the SPDR S & P 500 ETF (SPY) was down 0.04% at the time of writing. Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) fell 0.08% on Thursday morning, and the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA) gained 0.03%. Retail sentiment around the S & P 500 ETF on Stocktwits was in the 'bearish' territory.

Asian markets ended Thursday's trading session on a largely positive note, with the Nikkei 225 leading with gains of 1.6%, followed by the Shanghai Composite at 1.3%, and the TWSE Capitalization Weighted Stock index at 0.87%.

The Hang Seng index declined 0.35%, while the KOSPI was closed for trading on account of Chuseok Festivity.

Stocks To Watch

• Tesla Inc. (TSLA): The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened a probe into nearly 2.9 million Tesla vehicles equipped with the company's Full Self-Driving (FSD) system over more than 50 traffic safety violations and a few crashes. Tesla shares were down nearly 1% pre-market.
• Novo Nordisk AS (NVO): Novo Nordisk has entered into a definitive agreement with Akero Therapeutics Inc. (AKRO) to acquire the latter in a $5.2 billion deal. Novo shares were down nearly 2% in Thursday's pre-market session.
• Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL): Delta shares soared over 5% in Thursday's pre-market trade after the airline's third-quarter (Q3) results beat Wall Street expectations. Delta reported earnings per share (EPS) of $1.71 on revenue of $16.67 billion, beating analyst estimates of an EPS of $1.53 on revenue of $15.08 billion, according to Stocktwits data.
• PepsiCo Inc. (PEP): PepsiCo shares gained nearly 2% pre-market after the company's Q3 results beat Wall Street expectations. PepsiCo reported EPS of $2.29 on revenue of $23.94 billion, beating analyst estimates of an EPS of $2.26 on revenue of $23.84 billion, according to Stocktwits data.

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