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Non-farm payrolls data due on Friday
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AMC jumps as court order hinders stock conversion plan
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Futures mixed: Dow up 0.04%, S&P down 0.01%, Nasdaq down 0.24%
(Updates prices, adds details)
By Ankika Biswas and Amruta Khandekar
April 6 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were
subdued on Thursday ahead of a key jobs reading that will be
used by investors to assess the fallout of the Federal Reserve's
interest rate hikes on economic growth.
Weak data on the labor market and business activity this
week have fueled hopes of a pause in rate hikes even though
equities have been pressured by recession worries after the
recent turmoil in the banking sector.
This marks a change from recent months when risk sentiment
had increased due to softer economic data, which raised hopes of
a halt to rising borrowing costs by the Fed.
"There appears to be a feeling that markets want to believe
that the economy is slowing, which it probably is, and that
recent rate rises are to blame and the Fed will need to reverse
course soon when it comes to rate policy," said Michael Hewson,
chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.
Fed fund futures are indicating a 53.6% chance of the U.S.
central bank pausing its rate hikes in May and a 46.4% chance of
a rate cut at its July meeting, according to CME Group's
Fedwatch tool.
At 7:05 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 13 points,
or 0.04%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 0.25 points, or
0.01%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 30.75 points, or
0.24%.
Major technology and growth shares such as those of Apple
Inc , Tesla Inc and Nvidia Corp fell
between 0.1% and 0.7% in premarket trade.
Bucking the trend, Alphabet Inc rose 1.1% after
Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said the company plans to
add conversational artificial intelligence features to its
search engine, according to a report.
The benchmark S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq are on track to notch weekly declines for the first time
in four weeks.
The U.S. stock market will be shut on Friday for the Good
Friday holiday.
A Labor Department report on initial claims for state
unemployment benefits last week is expected to show an increase
to 200,000 from the prior period. The much-awaited non-farm
payrolls report for March will be released on Friday.
Remarks by St. Louis President James Bullard on the economy
and monetary policy, later in the day, will also be parsed for
clues on the Fed's policy.
A slew of major U.S. banks will kick off the first-quarter
earnings season next week, providing investors more insight into
the health of corporate America.
Among major stock moves, AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc jumped 11.4% after a U.S. court denied the theater
operator's request to lift a status quo order necessary for its
stock conversion plan.
(Reporting by Ankika Biswas and Amruta Khandekar in Bengaluru;
Editing by Anil D'Silva and Arun Koyyur)
