US pre-open: Futures point to flat open ahead of jobs report

US futures pointed to a broadly unchanged open on Wall Street following two days of gains, with investors likely to refrain from making any big bets either way ahead of Friday’s all-important nonfarm payrolls.

At 1230 GMT, Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 futures were flat.

Ahead of Friday’s payrolls report, investors will eye the release of initial jobless claims at 1330 GMT. The Markit services PMI is also slated for release at 1445 GMT, while ISM non-manufacturing, factory orders and durable goods orders are all due at 1500 GMT.

Societe Generale expects the data to show jobless claims declined to 260,000 last week from 270,000. It sees the non-manufacturing ISM remaining at 53.5 in February, following a three month plummet in the index.

Jasper Lawler, market analyst at CMC Markets, said: “Investors are starting to get twitchy before Friday’s jobs numbers.”

Meawhile, Markus Huber, senior analyst at Peregrine & Black, said: “Later in the afternoon all eyes will be on the release of US economic data again, with the spotlight on factory orders. For markets to continue to move higher more good data especially out of the US will be needed.”

Stocks in Europe wavered in a tight range following five consecutive days of gains as investors digested stronger-than-expected retail sales for the region in January but less inspiring data showing service sector growth slipped to a 13-month low.

In corporate news, Herbalife shares tumbled in pre-market trade after the marketing and nutrition firm said it had released “errant” information regarding new members.

Warehouse chain Costco Wholesale Corp was lower after it posted weaker-than-expected second quarter profit and revenue.

On the upside, though, Intel rallied after RW Baird upgraded the stock to ‘outperform’ from ‘neutral’.

In currencies, the dollar was flat versus the pound, 0.2% weaker against the euro and 0.4% firmer versus the yen.