US pre-open: Futures mixed ahead of tomorrow's NFP report
Wall Street futures had stocks opening mostly lower ahead of the bell on Thursday as traders awaited key employment data scheduled for release tomorrow.
As of 1215 GMT, Dow Jones futures were up 0.02%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.17% and 0.47% softer, respectively.
The Dow closed 58.06 points weaker on Wednesday after Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell testified on Capitol Hill for a second consecutive day.
With Powell's testimony over and done with, market participants will turn their attention to tomorrow's monthly jobs report, with economists expecting to see the US economy adding 225,000 jobs last month.
Swissquote's Ipek Ozkardeskaya said: "Today, investors will mostly spend the session digesting Powell's hawkish testimony, the major shift in US rate expectations, and the strong jobs data. They will also watch the US weekly jobless claims and pray that the February NFP print doesn't surprise to the upside as did the ADP report.
"As such, we could see some relief, and correction after two difficult days for risk assets, but investors will likely refrain from opening fresh positions before Friday's US jobs data, because only God knows what could happen when the data falls in. Risks are two-sided, as soft data could easily spur a risk rally."
On the macro front, February Challenger job cuts data will be out at 1230 GMT, while weekly jobless claims numbers will follow at 1330 GMT.
No major corporate earnings were slated for release on Thursday.
Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com