DJIA futures down 168 points (Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - New York, 02 Jul - US futures were lower ahead of the week's first batch of jobs data and an appearance by Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell that could shine light on interest rate prospects.

Wall Street ended higher yesterday on the first trading day of the new quarter with the tech-heavy Nasdaq rising 0.8% to close at a record. The Dow was up 0.1% while the S&P 500 rose 0.3%.

As the second half gets under way, monetary policy remains the key theme as investors try to fathom out whether the Fed has leeway to cut rates this year or not.

Stubborn inflation has led the central bank to put back the timetable for easing its policy and prompted traders to recalculate their expectations for the number of rate cuts this year.

All eyes therefore on an event attended by Powell, along with other policymakers including ECB President Christine Lagarde, at a panel discussion later today in Portugal.

Today's job openings survey, or JOLTS, is expected to show openings fell to 7.960 million in May from 8.059 million the previous month.

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

On the stocks front, large caps like Microsoft, Apple and Amazon are lower in premarket trade after posting gains the previous session. AI darling Nvidia is also down 1% while electric car maker Tesla is down 1.4% ahead of its quarterly update on deliveries.

Markets will close early tomorrow and will remain closed on July 4 for Independence Day.

Futures on the Dow Jones were down 168.00 points, or 0.43%, S&P 500 futures were down 28.00 points, or 0.51%, while futures on the Nasdaq were 126.50 points, or 0.63%, lower.

AAA-Sje

(RADIOCOR) 02-07-24 13:44:00 (0402) 5 NNNN