Stock futures chipping away at some of Thursday's plunge

U.S. equity futures are indicating a higher open on Friday, getting back a percentage of value lost in Thursday's huge selloff.

The major futures indexes are pointing to a gain of 2.1 percent when trading begins on Wall Street.

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This follows Thursday's equity carnage that saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average sink 6.9 percent, or 1,861.82 points, to 25,128.17. The S&P 500 dropped 5.9 percent to 3,002.10, its worst day since mid-March when stocks went through repeated harrowing falls as the virus lockdowns began.

The Nasdaq composite, which rose above 10,000 for the first time a day earlier, lost 527.62 points, or 5.3 percent, to 9,492.73.

Asian markets picked up the selling where the U.S. left off.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei dipped by 0.8 percent lower, Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.7 percent, while the China's Shanghai Composite dipped 0.1 percent.

The British economy shrank by a colossal 20.4 percent in April, the first full month that the country was in its coronavirus lockdown.

In Europe, London's FTSE rose 1.3 percent, Germany's DAX rebounded 1.4 percent and France's CAC jumped 2.3 percent.

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The S&P 500 rallied 44.5 percent between late March and Monday, erasing most of its losses tied to the pandemic. Skeptics have been saying the rally was overdone.

As businesses reopen and people emerge from stay-at-home orders, cases are climbing in nearly half the states, according to an Associated Press analysis.

Investor optimism for a speedy recovery was also dimmed by the Federal Reserve, which warned Wednesday that the road to recovery from the worst downturn in decades would be long and vowed to keep rates low for the foreseeable future.

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It estimated that the economy will shrink 6.5 percent this year, in line with other forecasts, before expanding 5 percent in 2021. It also expects the unemployment rate at 9.3 percent, near the peak of the last recession, by the end of this year. It's now 13.3 percent.

Those factors, along with the recent run-up in stock prices, set the stage for the wave of selling Thursday.

The Labor Department said Thursday that about 1.5 million people applied for U.S. unemployment benefits last week, another sign that many Americans are still losing their jobs even as the economy begins to gradually reopen. The latest figure marked the 10th straight weekly decline in applications.

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In other trading, oil is little changed. U.S. crude is at $36.32 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It fell $3.26 to settle at $36.34 a barrel Thursday. Brent crude is at $38.62 a barrel.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.