07:17 AM EST, 01/02/2025 (MT Newswires) -- US benchmark equities were tracking in the green before the opening bell Thursday as traders prepare for the first trading session of the new year.

Standard & Poor's 500 rose 0.6%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.5% and the Nasdaq jumped 0.8% in premarket activity. The majority of Asian exchanges were pointing lower while most European bourses were falling midday on the continent.

On the economic calendar, the weekly mortgage applications bulletin is out at 7 am ET, followed by the weekly jobless claims data at 8:30 am. The final Purchasing Managers' Manufacturing index for December posts at 9:45 am, while the construction spending report for November is scheduled for a 10 am release. The weekly EIA petroleum inventories report is due at 11 am.

Unity Software ( U ) rose 9% premarket after investor Keith Gill, known as "Roaring Kitty" on social media, shared an image on X containing a subtle reference to the game development software company, according to media reports. Tesla (TSLA) was up 1.4% ahead of the electric vehicle maker's fourth-quarter delivery results. Shares of MicroStrategy ( MSTR ) and Coinbase (COIN) rose 6.5% and 4.5% before the bell, respectively. Nvidia ( NVDA ) gained 1.5% while Palantir ( PLTR ) increased by 1.6%.

Before the opening bell, bitcoin increased about 2% at $96,449, West Texas Intermediate crude oil gained 1.6% to $72.80 a barrel, yields on 10-year Treasuries retreated 4.2 basis points to 4.54% and gold moved 0.6% higher to $2,655 an ounce.