U.S. stock futures traded mixed at the start of the new quarter on Tuesday as investors awaited new jobs and manufacturing data for clues on the path to rate cuts.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) fell 0.2% and S&P 500 futures (ES=F) hovered just below the flatline, each setting new records. There was also little change in the contracts for the Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F), which has a high proportion of high-tech stocks.
Stocks are off to a shaky start to October and the fourth quarter as the market digests Jerome Powell’s latest comments. The Fed chair said policymakers were in no hurry to cut rates even as they sought to keep the economy on solid footing, and traders scaled back bets on another 0.5% rate cut.
Read more: How Fed Rate Cuts Affect Bank Accounts, CDs, Loans, and Credit Cards
Given the Fed’s current focus on the labor market, those bets could be reset if the later August jobs report is softer than expected. The latest information on manufacturing activity released by ISM and S&P Global may also attract attention as a clue to the speed of the US economic slowdown.
The data will set the stage for Friday’s release of the September jobs report, the highlight of a week full of closely watched economic data. Investors are watching to see if the U.S. economy is cooling, not collapsing.
Meanwhile, a strike by longshoremen on the East Coast and Gulf Coast threatened to halt half of U.S. shipping. The disruption caused by a large-scale economic shutdown could not only cost the economy billions of dollars a day, cause inflation and put jobs at risk, but also have implications for U.S. politics.
Investors have been keeping an eye on geopolitical developments in the Middle East since the Israeli military moved into Lebanon.
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