DJIA futures down 195 points (Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - New York, 03 Sep - US futures were lower at the start of a holiday-shortened week featuring a flurry of data that could sway the Federal Reserve's thinking on interest rates.

Wall street ended higher on Friday to post a fourth-straight month of gains buoyed by data pointing to resilient economic growth and moderating price pressure. The Dow closed up 0.6% at a new record high while the S&P 500 and tech heavy Nasdaq both advanced just over 1%.

US markets were closed yesterday for the Labor Day holiday.

Investors today will be watching a series of data that could provide clues about the health of the economy including the ISM and S&P Global purchasing managers' surveys for August as well as construction spending in July.

The main focus of the week however will be on jobs market data and especially the key nonfarm payrolls report on Friday which could prompt the Fed to step up a monetary pivot it is widely expected to make this month.

As inflation slowly eases, the labor market has become a major concern for the US central bank after recent data signalled unemployment picking up.

Last week Fed chief Jerome Powell signalled 'the time is right' for an interest rate cut and investors are betting on a 25, or even 50, basis point cut at the central bank's next monetary policy meeting in September.

On the earnings front Zscaler and Broadcom are among the companies reporting results later today. Shares in US Steel meanwhile were lower in premarket trading after vice president Kamala Harris said it should remain American owned, opposing the 14.1 billion dollar takeover proposed by Japan's Nippon Steel.

Futures on the Dow Jones were down 195.00 points, or 0.47%, S&P 500 futures were down 26.50 points, or 0.47%, while futures on the Nasdaq were 118.50 points, or 0.60%, lower.

AAA-Sje

(RADIOCOR) 03-09-24 14:14:26 (0316) 5 NNNN