DJIA futures down 15 points (Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - New York, 05 Jul - US futures were trading around the flatline as investors braced for a key jobs report that could provide clarity on where interest rates are heading this year.

Wall Street hit new record highs on Wednesday, ahead of yesterday's holiday, as the S&P 500 rose 0.5% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 0.9%. The Dow finished little changed.

Economists today expect hiring in June to have slowed to 191,000 jobs with unemployment steady at rate held at 4%.

They also expect hourly wages to rise 0.3% from May for an annualized gain of 3.9%.

ADP jobs data released earlier this week pointed to slower private payrolls growth while weekly jobless claims came in above expectations. Both figures indicated the US's resilient labor market could finally be cooling.

Jobs are key to the debate about when the Federal Reserve can start cutting interest rates and whether it will be able to engineer a soft landing - taming inflation without triggering a recession.

Fed minutes this week from its most recent monetary meeting in June highlighted recent data signalling the labor market and the wider economy might be cooling but cautioned more evidence was needed to show the downward inflation trend was sustainable before it committed to any rate cut.

Futures on the Dow Jones were down 15.00 points, or 0.04%, S&P 500 futures were up 1.50 points, or 0.03%, while futures on the Nasdaq were 35.50 points, or 0.17%, higher.

AAA-Sje

(RADIOCOR) 05-07-24 13:44:32 (0356) 5 NNNN