By Jennifer Coombs, Research Analyst

In a rather contradictory action, the US equity futures are holding on to positive gains in the premarket while the price of oil is continuing to descend to another six-year low. As expected, rising global oil inventories are not helping prices, but signs of a possible nuclear deal with Iran could enable more Iranian exports, which would only mean higher oil inventories globally. The French Bank, Societe Generale estimates that world oil stockpiles are rising at a rate of 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd), and it forecasts the build will accelerate to 1.7 million bpd in the second quarter.

There’s a slew of domestic economic data that has the potential to move the market further, but so far the market is holding up after the first release. According to the New York Federal Reserve district, business activity is continuing to expand at a modest pace for New York manufacturers. The Empire State Manufacturing Index for March came in at 6.90, which is marginally lower than the February reading of 7.78. One of the major laggards for the month was in new orders at -2.39 from 1.22 in February. Weak orders are not a plus for employment though the March employment index did accelerate substantially to 18.56 compared to 10.11 in February for the best reading since May 2014. Yet, how long this can hold is in doubt especially given the slowing the last 2 months in the general 6-month outlook, which rose more than 5 points to 30.72, but the last 2 readings are the weakest since second quarter 2013. The Empire State reading kicks off the first monthly reading on the manufacturing sector, and as expected, it should be a precursor to lighter manufacturing activity in March.