US pre-open: Stock futures fall ahead of jobs data

US stock futures fell on Thursday as Brexit jitters continued to weigh and as investors awaited jobs data.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures dropped 22 points to 17,812, S&P 500 futures shed 3.60 points to 2,090.50 and Nasdaq futures slipped 5.75 points to 4,433.75.

Oil prices, on the other hand, staged a recovery after the American Petroleum Institute said on late Wednesday crude supplies fell 6.7 million barrels for the week ended 1 July, easing concerns about the global crude glut. The closely watched Energy Information Administration report is due at 1600 BST.

West Texas Intermediate crude increased 1.08% to $47.95 per barrel and Brent rose 1.07% to $49.33 per barrel at 1249 BST.

Meanwhile, traders continued to digest Wednesday’s Federal Reserve minutes of the 14-15 June policy meeting, which was seen to suggest an interest rate hike is a long way off.

The minutes showed most policymakers agreed to keep interest rates to a range between 0.25% and 0.5% following a weak May jobs report and due to uncertainty leading up to Britain’s 23 June European Union referendum.

“The Brexit vote alone is likely to deter them from raising rates until at least the end of the year as they wait to see what the knock on effects will be, both from an economic and financial markets perspective,” said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda.

The attention now turns to the ADP private payrolls report, due at 1315 BST. Expectations are for a gain of 160,000 jobs in June, down from May’s 173,000.

The US initial jobless claims data will be released at 1330 BST, with economists estimating a slight drop to 267,000 in the week to 2 July from 268,000 the prior week.

The data comes ahead of the non-farm payrolls report on Friday, which the Fed has been monitoring closely to gauge the health of the labour market as it considers its policy measures.

On the company front, WhiteWave Foods Co. rose in premarket trade after French dairy giant Danone SA said it plans to buy the organic food company for $10bn.

Western Digital Corp. gained after the maker of computer disk drives raised its guidance on quarterly earnings.

PepsiCo Inc. rallied after it reported second quarter earnings that exceeded analysts’ forecasts.

SemiLEDS Corp. jumped after the LED chips maker late Wednesday said Peter Chiou will buy 577,000 shares of the company’s common stock at $5.00 per share.

PriceSmart Inc. is due to publish earnings after the market closes.