Why U.S. Stock Futures Are Down Ahead Of Key Jobs Report For June

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded lower in early pre-market trade on Thursday ahead of the much-awaited jobs report for June.

US jobs report for June is scheduled for release at 8:30 a.m. ET. Analysts expect a 270,000 rise for nonfarm payrolls in June, compared with a better-than-expected 390,000 growth in May. Average hourly earnings are likely to increase 0.3% on the month, versus 0.3% gains in both May and April. The unemployment rate, however, is expected to remain unchanged at 3.6% in June. Data on wholesale inventories for May will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET, while data on consumer credit for May will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET. New York Fed President John Williams is set to speak at 8:30 a.m. ET.

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Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 112 points to 31,255.00 while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures fell 16.50 points to 3,888.50. Futures for the Nasdaq index fell 61 points to 12,077.50.

Oil prices traded lower as Brent crude futures fell 0.4% to trade at $104.23 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures fell 0.9% to trade at $ 101.76 a barrel. The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week is scheduled for release at 1:00 p.m. ET.

The U.S. has the highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the world, with total infections in the country exceeding 90,065,160 with around 1,045,080 deaths. India reported a total of at least 43,587,300 confirmed cases, while Brazil confirmed over 32,761,040 cases.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were lower today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index fell 0.3%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.2% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.9%. The French CAC 40 Index fell 0.7%, while German DAX fell 0.5%. Italy’s industrial production fell 1.1% from a month ago in May versus a revised 1.4% growth in the April. France recorded a current account deficit of EUR 3.9 billion in May versus a revised EUR 2.7 billion gap in the prior month, while trade deficit increased to EUR 13 billion in May from a revised EUR 12.7 billion in the previous month.

Asian markets traded mostly higher today. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.1%, China’s Shanghai Composite fell 0.25% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 0.38%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.5%, while India’s S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.4%. The gauge for Japanese service sector sentiment fell 1.1 points from a month ago to 52.9 in June.

Broker Recommendation

Piper Sandler maintained Microsoft Corporation MSFT with an Overweight and lowered the price target from $352 to $312.

Microsoft shares fell 0.5% to $267.01 in pre-market trading.

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Breaking News

• GameStop Corp GME fired its CFO, Mike Recupero and is also reportedly planning company-wide layoffs. The company also announced appointment of Diana Saadeh-Jajeh as CFO, effective immediately.
• Levi Strauss & Co. LEVI reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter and raised its quarterly dividend to $0.12 per share from $0.10 per share.
• The U.S. Treasury said it had delivered a framework to President Joe Biden, calling for international engagement and an inter-agency approach to digital assets.
• Upstart Holdings, Inc. UPST reported preliminary results for the second quarter. The company said it sees Q2 preliminary revenue of $228 million, versus earlier forecast of $295 million to $305 million. Net loss is seen in the range of $31 million to $27 million.

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