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U.S. stock futures mixed, tech-heavy Nasdaq set to open lower after ADP, jobless claims

U.S. stock-index futures were mixed early Thursday as investors parsed a fresh batch of labor-market data.

Nasdaq-100 futures were already trading in the red, as the tech-heavy indexes looked set to extend a four-day losing streak, their worst since October.

How are stock-index futures trading

  • S&P 500 futures ES00, -0.11% were down 2 points, or 0.1%, to 4,744.
  • Dow Jones Industrial Average futures YM00, +0.19% rose by 74 points, or 0.2%, to 37,771.
  • Nasdaq-100 futures NQ00, -0.51% were off by 60 points, or 0.4%, at 16,477.

The S&P 500 fell for a third-consecutive session on Wednesday as U.S. stocks continued to struggle at the start of 2024. The S&P 500 fell nearly 1% during the Santa Claus Rally period spanning late December and early January, its worst such showing since early 2016.

What’s driving markets

The S&P 500 has lost 1.4% and the Nasdaq Composite 2.8% in just the first two sessions of 2024 as investors appear to be taking some profits following a sharp rally at the end of last year.

Heightened Middle East tensions, concerns that stocks and bonds have become overbought, and worries that the Federal Reserve may not reduce borrowing costs as quickly as investors had hoped, were all seen contributing to the sell-off.

Indeed, minutes from the Fed’s December meeting released Wednesday showed officials welcomed the waning of inflation of late but still saw interest rates likely staying high for longer than traders were pricing in.

“The beginning of 2024 has seen a slight recalibration of market-based interest rate cut expectations, lingering geopolitical concerns, position adjustments ahead of U.S. labor statistics, and a flurry of corporate debt issues raising supply concerns, all contributing to a subdued start to the year in financial markets,” said Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management.

Equity bulls will be hoping that data continues to show economic activity slowing to the extent that it helps the Fed achieve its 2% inflation target, but not by so much that it indicates a contraction that would badly hit corporate earnings.

Investors will also soon receive a flurry of corporate earnings reports starting next week.

But more immediately in focus is the U.S. labor market, with the Labor Department’s nonfarm payrolls report, its marquee job-market report, due Friday. Investors have already received several other labor-market reports this week.

On Thursday, private payrolls data from ADP showed U.S. businesses added a solid 164,0,000 new jobs in December.

See: ADP jobs report finds 164,000 new workers hired in December

Meanwhile, U.S. government data showed the number of Americans who applied for unemployment benefits in the final week of 2023 fell to a nearly three-month low of 202,000.

See: Jobless claims drop to nearly three-month low of 202,000

A report on job openings released earlier in the week showed the number of open positions had fallen to a 32-month low of 8.8 million as of November, the latest data available.

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