(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures were muted on Thursday, pulling back after all three major indexes posted all-time closing highs in the last session, with focus on more employment-related data this week.
The , the Nasdaq and the blue-chip Dow clocked record closing highs on Wednesday as technology shares rallied after upbeat results from the likes of Salesforce (NYSE:) and Marvell (NASDAQ:) Technology.
Speaking on Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the economy is stronger now than the central bank had expected in September, and appeared to signal his support for a slower pace of interest-rate cuts ahead.
San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Mary Daly, in the meantime, said that “there’s no sense of urgency” on cutting rates. Comments from Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin would be on the radar later in the day.
Still, traders currently see a 74% chance of the Fed easing its monetary policy by 25-basis-points later this month, as per CME’s FedWatch Tool.
On the day, a reading of weekly jobless claims due before markets open would be awaited, in lead-up to this week’s centerpiece, the monthly jobs data on Friday.
“Ahead of a ‘live’ Fed policy meeting in December, we expect special factors including weather, the resolved Boeing (NYSE:) strike and election effects to cloud the read on the job market,” BNP Paribas (OTC:) economists wrote in a note.
“Our forecasts imply a November jobs report that is just ambiguous enough – strong job growth but a slight rise in unemployment, alongside moderate gains in pay – to keep a December rate cut as our base case.”
Although markets have reached the eclipse of the earnings seasons, quarterly results from Dollar General (NYSE:) and Kroger (NYSE:) would be on the watchlist before markets open.
At 5:08 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 9 points, or 0.02%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 1.25 points, or 0.02% and E-minis were down 22 points, or 0.1%.
Cryptocurrency- and blockchain-related stocks jumped in premarket trading after bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, stormed above the $100,000 mark for the first time.
Exchange operator Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:) rose 3.4%, miner MARA Holdings added 6.3% and the largest corporate holder of bitcoin MicroStrategy advanced 6.1%.
SentinelOne (NYSE:) dropped 14.7% after the cybersecurity firm missed Wall Street estimates for third-quarter profit.
Synopsys (NASDAQ:) fell 7.4% after the chip design software firm forecast fiscal 2025 revenue below Wall Street expectations thanks in part to a slump in China sales.
