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Futures down: Dow 0.39%, S&P 0.30%, Nasdaq 0.04%
March 10 (Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures fell on Friday as selling in SVB Financial shares increased in premarket trading while investors awaited a key jobs report for more clues on the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy path.
Wall Street’s main indices wiped out more than $80 billion from bank stocks in the previous session after startup-focused lender SVB Financial Group’s share sale fueled fears of stress in the banking sector.
SVB shares were down more than 41% in premarket trading on Friday after falling more than 60% in the previous session, while JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup and Wells Fargo fell between 0.6% and 1.1%.
All three major US indices edged toward weekly losses after Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s encouraging messages fueled fears the central bank would strike a bigger rate hike at its March meeting after reducing the size of its rate hike a month ago. Will come back on the rise.
Traders’ bets are currently almost evenly split between a rate hike of 25 bps and 50 bps at the Fed’s March meeting, with July seeing a rate hike of 5.48%.
After a sharp rise in jobless claims last week fueled hopes of an easing of its policy stance by the Fed, all eyes now turn to non-farm payrolls data at 8:30 AM ET, which is expected to show slower US job growth last month. hopefully. , with the unemployment rate remaining at its lowest level in more than five decades.
The reading showed non-farm payrolls increased by 205,000 jobs in February, less than half of the 517,000 additions in January. The unemployment rate is forecast to remain unchanged at 3.4%, the lowest since May 1969.
“The strength of January’s employment data came as a surprise to markets,” Mark Haefele, chief investment officer at UBS Global Wealth Management, said in a note. “While an upside surprise of this magnitude seems unlikely, the February report may remain too strong for comfort from the Fed’s perspective.”
At 5:35 AM, the Dow e-minis were down 127 points or 0.39%, the S&P 500 e-minis were down 11.75 points or 0.3%, and the Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 4.5 points or 0.04%.
In other stocks, Gap Inc fell 6.7% in premarket trading after the apparel maker reported a bigger-than-expected fourth-quarter loss and forecast full-year sales below Wall Street estimates, indicating a slowdown in demand.
(Reporting – Amrita Khandekar, Editing – Vinay Dwivedi)